JC-NRLF 


3fl7 


THE 

MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 


By 

MARION  TALBOT 

and 
SOPHONISBA  PRESTON  BRECKINRIDGE 


REVISED   EDITION 


WHITCOMB   &  BARROWS 
BOSTON,  1919 


COPYRIGHT,   1911  AND  1919 

By  MARION  TALBOT 

and 
SOPHONISBA   P.   BRECKINRIDGE 


THOMAS   TODD    CO.,   PRINTERS 

14  Reacon  Street,  Boston,  Mass 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     THE  HOUSEHOLD  AS  A  SOCIAL  UNIT i 

II.     THE  HOUSEHOLD  AS  THE  CENTRE  OF  CONSUMP- 
TION      10 

III.  SHELTER 20 

IV.  FOOD   29 

V.     CLOTHING 37 

VI.     MANAGEMENT 47 

VII.     DOMESTIC  SERVICE    56 

VIII.     EDUCATION 67 

IX.    THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD 74 

X.    THE  HOUSEHOLD  AND  THE  COMMUNITY 82 

INDEX   .                 9° 


413054 


PREFACE 

WE  hope  that  the  statements  and  suggestions  in  the 
following  pages,  supplemented  with  the  questions,  will 
lead  housewives,  either  separately  or  in  study  classes, 
and  students  of  social  conditions  in  college  and  elsewhere, 
to  find  ways  by  which  the  household  of  moderate  income 
and  with  children  may  realize  its  possibilities  as  an 
organized  group  of  human  beings.  In  these  days,  the 
constructive  forces  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  household  must  be  sought  in  new  garbs,  and  those 
forces  which  seem  to  be  disintegrating  must  be  rein- 
terpreted in  order  to  serve  their  higher  purposes.  No 
attempt  has  been  made  to  treat  the  subjects  presented 
in  an  exhaustive  way  or  to  do  more  than  to  indicate  the 
wide  range  of  interests  which  are  the  field  in  which 
the  progressive  housekeeper  may  serve  and  enjoy. 

MARION  TALBOT 

S.  P.  BRECKINRIDGE 
Department  of  Household 

A  dministration 

The  University  of  Chicago 

June,  1912 


PREFACE  TO  REVISED  EDITION 

DURING  the  years  since  the  following  analysis  was 
published,  there  has  accumulated  a  mass  of  testimony  to 
the  correctness  of  our  statements.  The  war  has  served 
to  emphasize  the  "wide  range  of  interests  which  are  the 
field  in  which  the  progressive  housekeeper  may  serve." 
In  the  following  edition,  the  several  sets  of  questions  and 
the  bibliographies  have  been  revised  and  made  applicable 
to  recent  developments.  But  except  so  far  as  the  authority 
of  the  Government  has  been  substituted  for  the  free 
choice  of  the  Housekeeper,  and  to  that  extent  her  prob- 
lems have  been  simplified,  the  statements  contained  in 
the  following  chapters  seem  still  important.  Among  the 
serious  problems  to  be  faced,  now  that  the  war  is  ended, 
is  that  of  determining  the  true  sphere  of  service  to  the 
modern  community  of  the  modern  household. 

MARION  TALBOT 
SOPHONISBA  P.  BRECKINRIDGE 
The  University  of  Chicago 
August  i,  ipip 


CHAPTER  I 

/ 

THE  HOUSEHOLD  AS  A  SOCIAL  UNIT 

THERE  are  students  of  modern  social  conditions  T 
who  prophesy  that  the  home  and  the  family  will 
not  endure  in  their  present  form  as  social  organizations. 
Moreover,  these  views  have  secured  a  considerable  fol- 
lowing, and  they  have  obtained  a  greater  publicity  than 
they  really  merit. 

The  prevalence  of  these  views  doubtless  seems  greater 
than  it  is,  partly  because  newspaper  and  magazine  writers 
have  widely  quoted  them  and  thus  given  them  the  sem- 
blance of  more  widespread  authority  than  they  actually 
possess,  and  partly  because  they  reflect  a  general  and 
very  genuine  dissatisfaction  with  many  social  phenomena 
apparent  at  the  present  time.  Such  evidence  is  found~^ 
in  the  increasing  frequency  of  divorce,  the  lowered 
birthrate,  the  multiplication  of  hotels  and  tenements,  the 
increase  of  public  places  of  amusement,  and  the  deser- 
tion of  families,  either  temporarily  or  permanently,  by 
husbands  and  fathers. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  that  the  dependence  of 
the  community  upon  sound  family  life  as  the  condition 
of  enduring  community  life  is  becoming  constantly  more 
widely  recognized  and  more  frankly  acknowledged  by 
persons  of  large  experience  in  actual  dealing  with  social 
problems.  Those  who  work  among  the  poor  with  any\ 
appreciation  of  their  responsibility  for  the  consequences 
of  their  ministry  have  long  been  familiar  with  the  fact 


2  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

that  to  attempt  to  serve  any  member  of  the  family  with- 
out taking  into  account  the  needs  of  the  entire  group  is 
generally  like  pouring  water  into  a  sieve.  The  Charity 
Organization  movement,  with  its  program  of  "family 
rehabilitation,"  is  a  conspicuous  instance  of  this  emphasis 
upon  the  family  as  the  ultimate  social  unit.  Another  is 
the  Juvenile  Court  movement,  with  its  theory  that  inade- 
quate family  care  amounts  to  dependency  and  justifies 
community  interference  in  behalf  of  a  child,  whose 
claim  to  normal  family  life  is  thus  recognized.  More- 
over, the  discussion  of  the  treatment  of  dependent  chil- 
dren, whether  by  means  of  pensions  so  that  they  may 
be  cared  for  in  their  own  homes,  or  after  the  "placing 
out"  method  whereby  they  are  given  homelike  surround- 
ings with  foster  parents,  has  made  the  necessity  of 
domestic  efficiency  on  the  part  of  the  mother  very  clear 
so  far  as  the  poor  are  concerned. 

In  the  case  of  those  who  suffer  from  spiritual  rather 
than  from  pecuniary  limitations,  the  theory  has  not  been  so 
clearly  formulated ;  but  the  importance  of  setting  higher 
standards  of  domestic,  social,  and  administrative  efficiency 
for  women  who  administer  incomes  ranging  from  two 
to  ten  thousand  dollars  is  becoming  constantly  more  evi- 
dent. In  the  first  place,  these  women  are  the  ones  who 
suffer  more  than  any  others  from  the  influences  which 
issue  from  a  leisure  class  based  on  recently  acquired 
wealth.  These  are  the  women  whose  incomes  are  most 
largely  drawn  from  positions  of  a  business  rather  than 
of  an  industrial  character,  among  whom  the  canons  of 
waste  and  idleness  secure  their  widest  adherence.  To  be 
sure,  the  college  graduates  belong  largely  to  this  group, 


AS    A    SOCIAL    UNIT  3 

as  do  most  of  the  professional  women.  They  are,  how- 
ever, as  yet,  the  exception  and  not  the  rule,  and,  to  the 
domestic  women  of  this  pecuniary  group,  subject  to  all 
the  pressure  of  the  competitive  and  wasteful  business 
standards  of  today,  is  intrusted  the  administration  of  the 
households  from  which  will  come  the  young  people  who 
will  be  able  to  take  high  school  and  college  courses,  and 
so  constitute  the  leadership  in  political,  professional, 
and  business  life.  It  is,  therefore,  of  supreme  importance 
that  for  women  of  that  group  the  dignity  and  responsi- 
bility of  their  tasks  should  be  made  clear,  and  ideals  of 
efficiency  and  utility  substituted  for  those  of  waste  and 
social  competition.  If  this  can  be  done  successfully, 
there  will  be  less  misapprehension  as  to  the  seriousness 
of  the  domestic  problem. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  great  confusion  of  judgment 
regarding  the  subject  has  prevailed.  Household  tasks  of 
outgrown  value  are  retained  because  of  their  association 
with  the  real  service  to  family  life  which  was  rendered 
by  them  at  an  earlier  period.  Archaic  methods  persist, 
practices  no  longer  in  accord  with  the  demands  of  the 
time  survive,  and  belated  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  century 
habits  of  thought  often  dominate  the  household  life  of 
the  group,  when  twentieth  century  business  or  educa- 
tional ideals  are  being  applied  to  problems  presented  to 
the  members  of  the  group  in  their  experiences  outside  the 
home.  The  inevitable  result  must  be  serious  difficulty  for 
the  young  woman  who  undertakes  as  wife  and  mother 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  her  family,  as  well  as  friction 
among  the  members  of  the  group.  The  development  of_j 
the  factory  system  and  the  application  of  its  principles 


4  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

to  many  processes  connected  with  the  preparation  of 
foods  and  the  manufacture  of  clothing  have  prevented 
her  acquisition  of  the  various  kinds  of  skill  which  her 
mother  or  her  grandmother  acquired  as  a  matter  of 
course.  She  cannot  spin,  weave,  card,  comb,  bake,  or 
brew.  She  can  perhaps  sew  a  little;  she  can  cook  but 
little,  and  then  successfully  only  if  she  refrains  from 
"stirring  in  judgment"  and  obeys  the  cookbook  literally. 
Apparently,  then,  her  status  has  been  reduced,  her  influ- 
ence narrowed,  and  her  position  rendered  less  dignified 
and  worthy.  Moreover,  much  of  the  work  which  the 
domestic  woman  once  did  in  the  home,  the  wage-paid 
woman  now  does  outside  the  home.  Wage-earning  is 
coming  to  have  equal  dignity  with  domestic  life,  and  the 
wage-paid  woman,  while  perhaps  industrially  bond,  is 
domestically  free. 

Yet|  it  is,  of  course,  obvious  to  the  intelligent  observer 
that  never  was  the  position  of  the  housekeeper  and  home- 
maker  in  reality  more  important  or  her  responsibility 
greater.  The  tragedy  does  not  lie  in  the  small  scope 
offered  for  the  use  of  her  abilities,  but  in  her  lack  of 
preparation  to  avail  herself  of  her  opportunity.  For 
without  warning  a  far  more  serious  change  has  taken 
place  than  has  been  realized.  The  domestic  tasks  of  an 
earlier  day  have  left  the  home,  not  leaving  behind  them 
a  void,  but  making  way  for  a  substitute  which  has  crept 
in,  calling  little  attention  to  itself  and  therefore  unnoticed 
and  unwelcomed.  This  substitute  for  the  older  making 
t  — of  yarn,  cloth,  bread,  and  beer — is  spending  money 
for  ready-made  clothing,  household  goods,  and  food 
almost  ready  to  be  served.  By  her  making,  the  house- 


AS    A    SOCIAL    UNIT 


keeper  of  two  generations  ago  provided  for  the  wants 
of  the  aged,  the  children,  and  the  other  adults  in  her 
little  group.  If  she  planned  wisely  and  executed  well, 
Johnny  had  trousers  that  were  warm,  durable,  and  com- 
fortable, Jenny's  little  dress  looked,  wore,  and  felt  well, 
and  the  husband's  homemade  shirt  lasted  until  a  suc- 
cessor was  ready.  Today,  by  her  spending,  she,  with^7 
others  like  her,  determines  the  fate  of  innumerable  child- 
workers,  whose  labor,  performed  perhaps  at  night,  is 
embodied  in  the  sheets  in  which  her  Johnny  and  Jenny 
sleep,  the  table  linen  from  which  the  husband  eats,  or 
the  bottles  from  which  the  aged  parent  takes  the  reliev- 
ing medicines.  By  her  buying,  employers  are  tempted  to 
continue  the  use  of  sweated  labor  on  the  curtains  which 
hang  in  reception  rooms  like  hers,  and  convict  labor  is 
enabled  to  compete  with  the  union  workingman,  whose 
efforts  to  improve  his  conditions  are  thus  rendered  futile.j 

Surely  the  position  of  one  who  holds  such  power, 
though  only  as  she  shares  it  with  others  who  are  under- 
taking a  like  task,  is  one  of  great  influence,  real  dignity, 
and  grave  responsibility.  And  yet  it  is  and  must  for  some 
time  be  extremely  difficult  to  equip  young  women  to 
perform  these  duties  and  meet  these  responsibilities  ade- 
quately. As  has  been  said,  the  vacating  of  the  household 
by  the  various  industries  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  has  sometimes  seemed  unduly  slow,  but  compared 
with  the  long  period  during  which  they  have  been  so 
associated  with  home  life  as  to  seem  to  be  identical  with 
home  life,  this  egress  has  been  accomplished  with  extraor- 
dinary swiftness.  Within  less  than  a  century,  the  age- 
long practice  of  making  in  anticipation  of  a  want  already 


6  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

experienced  has  been  replaced  by  buying  an  article  made, 
not  primarily  to  be  used,  but  to  be  sold,  often  for  a  want 
not  yet  felt.  The  goods  that  were  the  products  of  the 
labor  of  separate  small  family  groups  are  now  the  prod- 
ucts of  big  business.  Through  the  act  of  purchase,  the 
housekeeper  becomes  related  to  those  who  buy  and  sell, 
who  plan  and  toil  and  exploit,  the  wide  world  over.  To 
meet  such  a  situation,  no  preparation  has  been  possible, 
because  no  such  situation  could  be  anticipated.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  difficult  to  understand  why  we  still  teach 
a  little  cooking  and  a  little  sewing,  and  so  continue  to 
relate  ourselves  with  the  long  past  of  making,  instead 
of  formulating  and  inculcating  the  principles  of  spending 
which  belongs  only  to  today  and  yesterday.  For  the  past, 
explanations  may  suffice  and  apologies  be  accepted.  For 
the  future,  however,  no  excuse  can  be  offered.  We  know 
today  that  the  newly  assumed  function  of  spending  is  as 
important  as  the  old  function  of  making.  We  know  that 
those  who  spend  determine  the  fate  of  those  who  majse. 
We  know  that  those  who  make  and  those  who  profit  and 
those  who  spend  are  held  by  bonds  of  common  interest, 
and  we  know  that  to  those  to  whom  so  much  is  intrusted 
must  be  given  wisdom,  skill,  technique,  and  intelligence 
with  reference  to  the  hard  task  to  which  they  set  their 
hands. 

Not  only,  then,  are  we  beginning  to  recognize  the 
significance  of  the  spending  function,  but  new  measures 
are  being  worked  out  by  which  the  importance  of  the 
efficient  performance  of  the  household  task  is  estimated 
in  terms  of  social  well-being.  In  the  child-study  depart- 
ment of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education,  the  children 


AS   A    SOCIAL   UNIT  7 

who  are  brought  before  the  Juvenile  Court  as  truant, 
incorrigible,  or  delinquent  are  tested  in  ingenious  ways 
to  learn,  if  possible,  the  real  source  of  their  difficulty.  It 
is  the  belief  of  the  wise  persons  who  observe  these  chil- 
dren in  this  close,  scientific  manner  that  in  many  cases 
their  troubles  grow,  not  out  of  natural  inferiority,  either 
mental  or  moral,  but  out  of  a  lack  of  opportunity  during 
the  early  days  and  weeks  of  their  lives  to  form  regular 
habits,  to  learn  to  coordinate  well  their  bodily  activities, 
and  to  cooperate  and  work  naturally  with  other  members 
of  the  group.  In  other  words,  the  failure  to  secure  regu- 
lar sleep,  regular  feeding,  and  regular  play  for  the  child 
at  first,  and  then  the  loss  of  regular  family  life,  and  espe- 
cially the  family  meal,  at  which  his  needs  receive  due 
recognition  as  part  of  a  group  expression  of  a  group 
need,  and  the  lack  of  such  discipline  as  the  well-ordered 
home  may  furnish,  lead  the  children  into  the  humiliating 
paths  which  may  end  in  the  truant  and  reform  school; 
and  even  if  the  failure  is  not  so  conspicuous,  the  result 
may  still  be  that  the  child  will  be  prevented  from  coming 
into  his  kingdom  of  full  individual  development  and  full 
social  participation.  The  casual  observer  may  propose 
the  substitution  of  the  well-ordered  institution  for  the 
task  of  securing  such  regularity  and  discipline  in  the 
e very-day  household.  But  the  mortality  tables  of  institu- 
tions for  children  forbid  the  consideration  of  such  sub- 
stitutions. If  they  do  not  receive  in  the  home  the  kind 
of  training  that  they  should  receive,  they  may  become 
truant  or  delinquent;  but  if  they  receive  institutional 
rather  than  maternal  care,  they  die;  and  the  risk  is  too 
great. 


8  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

Because,  then,  of  the  significance  of  her  task  to  the 
later  life  of  the  members  of  her  group,  and  because,  too, 
of  her  power  to  determine  the  fate  of  those  workers  from 
whose  services  she  benefits  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
the  woman  who  administers  the  affairs  of  a  household 
may  well  regard  herself  as  placed  at  the  real  heart  of 
things,  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  that  institution 
which  is  the  unit  of  social  organization. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  the  factors  which  go  to  make  up  sound 
family  life? 

2.  In  what  respects,  if  any,  may  there  be  said  to 
have  occurred  a  decadence  in  home  life  ? 

3.  What  features  of  the  present  form  of  family  life 
are  the  object  of  criticism? 

4.  In  case  you  think  any  of  this  criticism  valid,  what 
remedies  would  you  propose? 

5.  What  archaic  methods  and  belated  practices  are 
retained  in  your  household  ? 

6.  Name   some   competitive   and   wasteful   business 
standards. 

7.  What  measures  is  your  community  taking  to  pre- 
serve family  life? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
The  Family.    Helen  Bosanquet.    New  York :   The  Mac- 

millan  Co. 
The   Family   as   a   Social   and   Educational   Institution. 

W.  Goodsell.    New  York :   The  Macmillan  Co. 
The  Family.    E.  C.  Parsons.    New  York :  Putnam's  Sons. 
Woman  and  Economics.    Charlotte  P.  Oilman.    Boston: 

Small,  Maynard  &  Co. 


AS   A    SOCIAL    UNIT  9 

The  Normal  Life.  E.  T.  Devine.  New  York:  Survey 
Associates. 

The  Ethics  of  the  Family.  J.  H.  Tufts.  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction.  1915. 

Rich  and  Poor.  Helen  Bosanquet.  New  York :  The  Mac- 
millan  Co. 

The  Standard  of  Life.  Helen  Bosanquet.  New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

Durable  Monogamous  Wedlock.  J.  E.  Cutler.  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  22,  p.  226. 

Social  Diagnosis.  Mary  E.  Richmond.  New  York: 
Russell  Sage  Foundation. 

Domestic  Service,  Chapter  I.  Lucy  M.  Salmon.  New 
York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Some  Ethical  Gains  through  Legislation.  Florence  Kelley. 
New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Report  on  Condition  of  Women  and  Child  Wage-Earners 
in  the  United  States,  Volume  I.  "Cotton  Textile 
Industry,"  Chapter  I.  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor,  Washington,  D.  C.,  1910. 

Handbook  of  Information  for  Home  Service  Sections 
No.  207.  American  Red  Cross,  Washington,  D.  C. 

U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau  Publica- 
tion No.  28. 

NOTE. — The  books  referred  to  are  expected  to  be 
suggestive  rather  than  to  give  specific  and  detailed 
answers  to  the  questions,  and  the  lists  have  been  made 
with  special  reference  to  students  who  have  access  to 
reference  libraries. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  HOUSEHOLD  AS  THE  CENTRE  OF 
CONSUMPTION 

THE  household  has  lost  its  social  value  as  the  pro- 
ductive unit ;  it  remains,  however,  the  centre  of 
consumption.  That  the  father  should  earn  and  the  mother 
spend  the  family  income  is  the  allotment  of  function 
generally  agreed  upon.  There  are,  of  course,  variations 
of  this  program.  There  are  well-to-do  households  in 
which  the  father  not  only  earns  the  support  but  pays 
tlte  large  items  in  the  expense  account,  such  as  rent  and 
other  amounts  which  are  periodically  due.  There  are 
other  households  in  which  the  wife  is  physically  disabled 
or  indifferent,  and  the  father  makes  the  daily  purchases. 
In  other  families,  too,  in  which  the  mother  is  interested 
in  a  professional  pursuit,  scholarship,  the  law,  journal- 
ism, or  teaching — conspicuous  examples  could  be  cited 
of  each — the  direction  of  the  household  may  be  jointly 
assumed  as  suits  the  professional  convenience  of  either 
or  both.  There  are  communities  of  considerable  extent 
— the  great  textile  centres,  mill  towns  in  England  and 
Scotland,  and  certain  factory  towns  in  New  England — 
where  the  mother  regularly  contributes  by  her  labor  to 
the  family  income.  The  sum  of  these  exceptional  family 
groups  is  absolutely  large ;  relatively,  however,  it  is  small 
enough  to  justify  characterizing  them  as  "exceptional." 
However  many  may  be  the  cases  of  the  women  who  earn 
or  however  questionable  the  desirability  of  their  becom- 

10 


AS   THE    CENTRE    OF    CONSUMPTION  II 

ing  wage-paid  workers,  it  is  universally  accepted  as  suit- 
able that  the  women  of  the  household  should  spend. 
Among  large  numbers  of  the  community  it  is,  in  fact, 
the  practice  for  husband  and  wage-earning  children  to 
turn  in  to  the  wife  and  mother  their  entire  pay,  to  receive 
back  for  personal  and  separate  use  the  amount  her  judg- 
ment allows,  on  the  basis  of  knowing  and  planning  for 
the  needs  of  the  entire  group. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  in  the  past  slight  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  this  function  of  the  housewife, 
because  in  the  past,  when  the  home  was  the  centre  of 
production,  the  interest  was  focused  upon  the  technical 
processes  involved  rather  than  upon  the  wise  allotment 
of  various  goods  to  various  wants.  Moreover,  where  the 
great  volume  of  wants  are  satisfied  by  making  goods 
rather  than  by  purchasing  them,  the  latter  seems  rela- 
tively less  important.  In  this  country,  too,  nature  has 
been  so  bountiful  and  the  access  to  the  means  of  produc- 
tion on  the  whole  so  free  that  penalties  for  unwise  use 
of  resources  have  been  lacking,  and  there  has  therefore 
been  relatively  slight  inducement  to  improve  the  tech- 
nique of  consumption. 

The  same  wasteful  methods  have  prevailed  in  pro- 
duction for  the  market.  Only  as  the  struggle  for  life 
grows  keener  and  access  to  the  means  of  production 
more  difficult,  as  land  is  appropriated  and  capital  is 
organized,  as  the  growth  of  cities  and  improved  means 
of  communication  reveal  to  all  members  of  the  commu- 
nity the  struggle  necessary  for  many,  has  the  producer 
for  the  market  on  the  one  hand  and  the  housewife  direct- 
ing the  consumption  of  her  family  on  the  other  begun 


12  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

to  take  notice  of  the  deplorable  waste  which  has  char- 
acterized the  activities  of  both.  On  this  account  much 
is  said  and  written  as  to  the  desirability  of  cost-account- 
ing in  the  factory  and  office.  In  the  same  way  the  need 
is  voiced  for  the  housewife  to  learn  to  plan  more  care- 
fully and  to  enter  upon  each  year's  activities  prepared  to 
benefit  from  the  experience,  failures,  mistakes,  victories, 
and  successes  of  previous  years. 

This  means  a  system  of  cost-accounting  carefully 
worked  out  so  as  to  reduce  the  labor  of  keeping  it  to 
the  lowest  point  consistent  with  its  intelligent  use  in  com- 
paring the  results  of  methods  used  and  of  experiments 
tried.  It  also  means  careful  and  deliberate  planning,  the 
preparation  of  a  budget  in  which  the  wants  of  the  group 
are  recognized  and  allowance  is  made  for  the  fullest 
satisfaction  of  each  want  consistent  with  the  adequate 
recognition  of  the  others.  It  means,  of  course,  a  standard 
of  living  adopted  on  the  basis  of  careful  thought  as  to 
the  pecuniary  resources  available  for  the  group,  the 
probable  changes  in  the  earning  capacity  of  the  man,  the 
social  claims  upon  the  group,  and  the  domestic  and  social 
capacities  of  the  woman. 

The  first  consideration  in  determining  the  amount  to 
be  spent,  after  taking  account  of  the  maximum  fixed  by 
the  total  income  from  all  sources — the  earnings  of  the 
husband,  income  from  invested  securities  owned  by  both 
husband  and  wife,  earnings  of  the  children,  etc. — and 
the  minimum  set  by  the  actual  cost  of  the  shelter,  food, 
and  clothing  consistent  with  health  and  decency,  would 
be  the  allotment  of  resources  as  between  present  and 
future  wants.  When  there  are  children,  the  cost  of  edu- 


AS   THE    CENTRE   OF    CONSUMPTION  13 

cation  must  be  anticipated  as  relatively  greater  when  they 
reach  the  adolescent  period.  The  claims  of  the  man's 
business  may  require  sudden  change  in  domicile  or 
make  a  more  costly  method  of  living  seem  advantageous. 
Inherited  tendencies  of  a  physical  kind  may  make  it  seem 
wise  to  lay  aside  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  current 
income  against  the  time  of  illness  and  incapacity.  On 
the  other  hand,  generous  nourishment  for  man  and  child 
alike,  or  apparently  extravagant  expenditures  in  educa- 
tion or  recreation,  may  ward  off  the  dreaded  invalidism 
or  bring  in  relatively  larger  returns  in  increased  earning 
capacity  in  later  years. 

These  considerations  and  others  like  them  should 
weigh  with  the  young  housewife  to  whom  the  husband 
intrusts  the  responsibility  of  planning  their  joint  domestic 
undertaking.  Not  only  should  she  consider  seriously  the 
claims  of  the  present  and  of  the  future;  she  should 
have  a  pretty  clear  idea  of  the  wants  other  than  physical 
which  will  demand  satisfaction  and  avenge  themselves 
if  ignored.  She  will,  of  course,  recognize  the  fact  that 
food  adequate  in  amount  and  well  selected,  shelter 
wholesome,  decent,  and  if  possible  beautiful,  and  cloth- 
ing of  the  kind  to  meet  the  needs  of  warmth,  freedom 
of  motion,  tastefulness,  and  rational  conformity  to  pre- 
vailing styles  must  be  supplied.  She  will,  in  addition, 
allow  for  the  schooling  of  the  children  and  provide  the 
opportunity  for  the  entire  group,  by  means  of  daily  news- 
papers, the  weekly  and  monthly  magazines,  and  the 
purchase  of  books,  to  indulge  to  a  reasonable  extent 
the  desire  to  know  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  about 
and  what  the  past  has  meant.  If  she  is  wise,  she  will 


14  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

allow  for  such  social  intercourse  as  will  give  her  group 
a  sense  of  close  relationship  with  other  groups;  for 
recreation  which  brings  relaxation  and  gives  free  play 
to  individual  and  original  powers;  for  such  service  of 
the  poor  and  needy  as  cultivates  the  spirit  of  service  and 
gives  a  sense  of  unity  with  the  whole  wide  world;  and 
for  such  enjoyment  and  appreciation  of  beauty  as  unites 
the  individual  harmoniously  with  the  universe. 

Her  first  plan  must  be  tentative,  and  on  the  whole 
experimentally  tried  out.  No  very  definite  instruction  can 
be  given  as  to  the  proportion  of  income  to  be  assigned 
to  the  various  activities  of  the  family.  This  is  not  because 
the  subject  has  not  received  attention.  Various  plans 
have  been  proposed  for  formulating  proper  standards  of 
family  life.  Le  Play,  the  French  student  of  family  life, 
spent  many  years  observing  the  customs  of  family  groups 
in  many  parts  of  the  world,  in  order  that  the  possibilities 
of  controlling  one's  environment  and  the  extent  to  which 
the  environment  is  determining  might  be  better  under- 
stood. On  the  basis  of  extensive  and  elaborate  compu- 
tation, Ernst  Engel  undertook  to  deduce  certain  "laws 
of  expenditure"  which  indicate  within  wide  limits  the 
relationships  between  total  income  and  the  proportion 
allotted  to  any  special  wants.  These  "laws"  are  usually 
formulated  as  follows: 

1.  The  lower  the  income  the  larger  the  proportion 
claimed  by  sustenance. 

2.  Lodging,  warming,  and  lighting  absorb  an  invari- 
able proportion,  whatever  the  income. 

3.  Clothing  claims  a  constant  proportion. 


AS    THE    CENTRE    OF    CONSUMPTION  15 

4.  The  larger  the  income  the  greater  the  proportion 
allotted  to  well-being. 

These  studies  were  limited,  however,  to  families  on 
a  low  pecuniary  level.  The  conclusions,  therefore,  have 
no  weight  as  indicating  what  is  desirable.  They  merely 
summarize  the  practice  of  those  who  have  lived  under  the 
pressure  of  poverty,  and  indicate  in  statistical  form 
the  truism  that  so  long  as  a  family  is  in  the  grasp  of 
severe  poverty,  food  will  claim  a  disproportionate  share 
of  the  slender  resources.  If  as  the  income  increases  the 
proportions  allotted  to  housing  and  clothes  remain  con- 
stant, it  is  because  with  housing  and  clothing  are  asso- 
ciated satisfactions  of  varied  kinds,  social  intercourse, 
beauty,  display,  which  demand  satisfaction. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  true  bases  of  expenditure  may 
some  day  be  formulated;  but  that  will  be  possible  only 
when  more  intelligence  has  been  devoted  to  the  house- 
hold problem.  When  housekeepers,  trained  in  the  tech- 
nique of  spending,  wise  as  to  the  nature  of  the  interests 
intrusted  to  their  care,  become  interested  enough  to  keep 
careful  accounts,  to  make  experiments  which  require 
patience  and  devotion,  and  to  report  the  results  for  the 
benefit  of  others  engaged  in  similar  undertakings,  a  body 
of  data  will  become  available  from  which  conclusions  as 
to  desired  standards  of  living  may  be  drawn. 

Obviously,  however,  the  intelligent  young  house- 
keeper will  even  now  familiarize  herself  with  the  sug- 
gestions contained  in  such  studies  as  those  referred  to,  in 
order  that  she  may  obtain  the  help  which  they  may  afford 
in  determining  when  and  how  to  meet  peculiar  needs  for 
which  special  provision  must  be  made.  For  example,  if 


l6  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

shelter,  heat,  and  light  assume  a  fairly  constant  propor- 
tion, and  that  somewhere  near  one  fifth,  and  she  finds 
that  her  expenditures  conform  pretty  closely  to  that 
measure,  she  may  feel  fairly  well  satisfied,  unless  she 
should  argue  that  during  the  first  few  years  of  married 
life,  when  social  demands  are  few,  while  her  children  are 
little,  she  will  reduce  this  item  to  an  even  lower  claim 
by  doing  without  a  sitting  room  and  guest  room,  or  by 
some  other  limitation  in  housing,  in  order  that  there 
may  be  large  freedom  later  on  when  the  husband  is  able 
to  be  at  home  more  and  the  children  demand  more  space 
and  more  entertaining. 

In  such  a  spirit  of  foresight  and  regard  for  values 
will  she  distribute  all  her  resources — her  money  income, 
her  own  time  and  strength,  and  the  time  and  strength 
of  those  whose  service  she  commands.  Especially  in- 
teresting questions  arise  in  connection  with  processes 
formerly  closely  related  to  family  life,  now  ready  to 
sever  connection  with  it.  Weaving  and  spinning  have 
gone.  Should  sewing  go?  Will  she  make  the  little  gar- 
ments for  the  first  baby,  or  buy  them  already  made  and 
save  her  eyesight  and  nervous  force  ?  Brewing  was  once 
a  household  process.  Shall  baking  go?  Will  she  make 
or  buy  her  family's  supply  of  jams  and  other  sweet  things 
for  the  winter's  enjoyment?  If  she  lives  in  a  community 
where  there  is  no  wage-paid  work  for  women  which 
might  attract  her  for  a  time ;  if  the  bakers  of  her  town 
make  poor  bread  under  conditions  of  which  she  cannot 
approve;  if  the  children  need  home  baking  because  in 
their  community  domestic  science  has  not  been  put  in  the 
school  curriculum  and  they  need  to  be  taught  to  use  their 


AS    THE    CENTRE    OF    CONSUMPTION  I/ 

hands — under  any  of  these  circumstances  she  may  well 
decide  to  cling  to  the  earlier  practice.  And  so  with  many 
other  decisions.  Perhaps  her  task  cannot  be  better  de- 
scribed than  by  saying  that  she  will  allot  the  various 
units  of  her  resources  so  that  she  will  get  out  of  every 
one  at  least  as  much  satisfaction  as  if  it  had  been  allotted 
to  any  other  use. 

With  such  a  guiding  principle,  with  the  self-control 
and  patience  necessary  to  keep  careful  accounts  and  com- 
pare the  results  of  the  experiments  as  the  years  go  by, 
and  with  the  cooperation  of  the  husband  in  encouraging 
such  experimentation,  the  management  of  the  group 
would  become  and  remain  a  problem  of  increasing  interest 
and  dignity. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  home  as  a  "place  of  con- 
sumption"? 

2.  For   what   needs   must   the    income    of   a    family 
provide  ? 

3.  Why  has  little  attention  been  paid  to  the  division 
of  income  ? 

4.  What  considerations  other  than  those  of  pecuniary 
and  industrial  economy  should  help  determine  the  method 
of  living? 

5.  What  tests  can  be  applied  to  determine  whether 
the  family  income  is  expended  in  the  most  satisfactory 
way? 

6.  What  constitutes  good  buying? 

7.  Describe  five  observed  instances  of  good  or  bad 
buying. 

8.  What  is  meant  by  "good  standards  of  living"? 


l8  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

9.  Under  what  conditions  do  you  think  a  housekeeper 
is  justified  in  taking  up  gainful  employment? 

10.  How  can  greater  simplicity  in  living  be  secured  ? 

11.  Make  a  list  of  the  industries  which  have  in  general 
disappeared  from  the  city  household. 

12.  Make  a  list  of  those  which  have  partially  dis- 
appeared. 

13.  Make  a  list  of  those  which  you  think  may  dis- 
appear with  advantage  to  family  life. 

14.  Make  a  list  of  interests  and  occupations  of  the 
housekeeper  which  do  or  may  replace  the  lost  ones. 

15.  What  measures  for  the  control  of  spending  have 
recently  been  adopted  in  your  neighborhood  ? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Economic  Function  of  Woman.  E.  T.  Devine.  New 
York:  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

The  Woman  Who  Spends.  B.  J.  Richardson.  Boston : 
Whitcomb  &  Barrows. 

The  Cost  of  Living  as  Modified  by  Sanitary  Science. 
Chapter  IX,  "Organization  of  the  Household." 
E.  H.  Richards.  New  York :  J.  Wiley  &  Sons. 

General  Sociology.  Chapter  XXXI,  "Interests";  Chap- 
ter XXXII,  "The  Individual."  A.  W.  Small.  Chi- 
cago :  The  University  of  Chicago  Press. 

The  Standard  of  Living  among  Workingmen's  Families 
in  New  York  City.  R.  C.  Chapin.  New  York: 
Charities  Publication  Committee.  Also  review  in 
Journal  of  Political  Economy,  Vol.  17,  p.  541. 


AS    THE    CENTRE    OF    CONSUMPTION  19 

Home  Problems.  Caroline  L.  Hunt.  Boston :  Whitcomb 
&  Barrows. 

American  Economic  Review.  II,  269.  "The  Backward 
Art  of  Spending  Money."  W.  C.  Mitchell. 

Household  Manufactures  in  the  United  States.  R.  M. 
Tryon.  Chicago :  University  of  Chicago  Press. 

Manual  of  Household  Accounts.  J.  C.  and  M.  F.  Cran- 
dell.  Boston :  Whitcomb  &  Barrows. 

Household  Accounting.  W.  A.  Sheaffer.  New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

The  Business  of  the  Household.  C.  W.  Taber.  Phila- 
delphia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 


CHAPTER  III 
SHELTER 

THERE  are  three  terms  which  are  often  confused 
in  popular  usage,  viz.,  housing,  housekeeping,  and 
home-making.  Each  one  has  a  distinct  meaning,  and  yet 
they  all  go  together  to  make  up  one  whole,  and  that  a 
very  important  concern  of  the  housewife.  We  may  use 
as  an  analogy  the  human  body.  There  is  first  its  struc- 
ture or  its  anatomy,  then  its  physical  activities  or  its 
physiology,  and  finally  its  spiritual  life  or  its  soul. 
Housing  is  the  material  form  which  shelter  takes ;  house- 
keeping is  the  direction  or  maintenance  of  the  physical 
aspects  of  the  house,  while  home-making  is  the  crown 
of  all,  the  nurture  and  development  of  that  spirit  which 
finds  expression  in  the  popular  phrase,  "There's  no  place 
like  home." 

Much  of  the  so-called  "bad  housing,"  when  closely 
scrutinized,  proves  to  be  bad  housekeeping  and  bad  home- 
making.  Changes  in  housing  laws  will  not  better  these 
conditions.  There  must  be  education  for  housekeeping. 
But  more  important  still  for  right  living  and  the  wel- 
fare of  society  is  education  for  home-making.  This 
means  the  education  of  husbands  and  fathers  as  well  as 
of  wives  and  mothers.  Little  can  be  accomplished  for 
the  betterment  of  the  home  until  this  fact  is  recognized 
by  public  opinion  and  the  significance  of  the  home — 
not  of  its  processes  merely — is  recognized  equally  by 
men  and  women. 

20 


SHELTER  21 

As  the  civilization  of  our  time  grows  more  complex, 
the  relation  of  the  individual  to  other  individuals  and 
to  the  community  becomes  more  dependent  and  intricate. 
The  change  manifests  itself  in  many  forms,  among 
which  one  of  the  most  important  and  obvious  is  the 
larger  control  over  the  individual  and  his  activities 
assumed  by  the  state,  showing  itself  by  the  adoption  of 
new  statutes  and  the  organization  of  new  administrative 
machinery. 

One  of  the  latest  phases  of  individual  activity  to  be 
taken  over  by  the  community  is  that  of  the  householder. 
The  earlier  attitude  of  the  law  towards  a  man's  dwelling 
was  shown  in  the  adage  that  "A  man's  house  is  his  castle/' 
expressing  the  idea  that  at  the  outer  door  all  rights  of 
the  outsider,  even  the  public,  ceased,  and  beyond  that 
point  the  power  of  the  occupant  was  complete. 

This  view  of  the  rights  of  the  householder  has  had 
to  yield  to  the  modern  conception  of  the  relations  of 
men  to  each  other,  and  the  question,  "Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?"  receives  quite  different  answers  now,  when  the 
brother's  right  to  life  and  health  are  had  in  mind,  from 
those  given  in  the  older  days,  when  men's  minds  were 
centred  on  obtaining  freedom  from  official  control.  In 
this  respect,  as  in  other  directions,  it  is  recognized  more 
and  more  fully  that  the  limitations  of  one  man's  freedom 
may  be  absolutely  essential  to  the  enjoyment  by  another 
man  of  ordinarily  favorable  conditions. 

The  law  has  always  recognized  as  a  basic  principle 
in  the  use  of  property  the  maxim,  "Thou  shalt  not  so  use 
thine  own  as  to  injure  another's";  and  in  this  principle 
support  was  found  for  the  whole  theory  and  law  relating 


22  THE  'MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

to  nuisances,  public  and  private.  In  these  days  the  health 
has  become  a  matter  of  public  interest  and  control,  as 
the  public  peace  long  has  been;  and  control  of  the  use 
of  a  man's  house  has  been  taken  over  by  the  public  with 
something  of  the  same  completeness  with  which  the  use 
of  the  streets  and  highways  long  has  been  regulated. 

The  forms  which  the  regulation  has  assumed  are 
first,  preventive,  exercised  by  administrative  boards  or 
officers  with  large  and  incisive  powers  of  inspection  and 
direction;  and  second,  penal,  enforced  by  the  ordinary 
criminal  processes  of  the  law.  The  control  thus  exer- 
cised is  usually  in  this  country  a  matter  of  state,  rather 
than  of  federal,  control,  largely  delegated  to  the  local 
units,  and  varies  greatly  with  the  needs  of  different  locali- 
ties and  their  respective  stages  of  civic  development. 
Because  of  the  wide  range  of  these  variations,  it  would 
seem  worth  while  for  householders,  either  individually 
or  through  special  or  general  clubs,  to  make  a  study  of 
the  subjects  over  which  control  has  already  been  assumed 
in  the  most  progressive  communities,  and  to  discuss  the 
tendencies  manifesting  themselves.  There  should  be  the 
twofold  purpose  of  informing  the  members  of  those  com- 
munities which  have  taken  an  advanced  position  what 
obligations  have  been  laid  upon  them,  and  of  suggesting 
to  members  of  those  communities  which  are  backward  in 
this  respect  what  they  may  reasonably  demand  of  their 
legislative  bodies  and  to  what  objects  the  public  opinion 
of  their  neighbors  may  profitably  be  directed. 

But  however  important  the  legal  relations  of  the 
householder  to  the  community  at  large  may  be,  it  is  not 
the  only  nor  perhaps  the  most  important  subject  for 


SHELTER  23 

study.  To  be  sure,  a  long  step  in  advance  is  taken  when 
a  householder  realizes  that  society  is  no  longer  an  aggre- 
gation of  isolated  units,  enters  into  the  modern  spirit  of 
the  obligation  of  the  individual  to  the  community,  and 
heartily  obeys  the  laws  which  control  the  rights  of  house- 
holders in  the  use  of  their  property.  But  he  does  not 
reach  the  full  conception  of  the  modern  view  until  he 
realizes  that  there  is  a  finer  and  higher  ideal  than  that 
of  merely  conforming,  however  intelligently  and  will- 
ingly, to  the  regulations  laid  down  by  the  community  in 
which  he  dwells,  and  considers  the  sacrifice  of  the  seem- 
ing liberty  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  larger  oppor- 
tunity for  the  best  citizenship.  No  matter  how  specific, 
detailed,  and  exacting  the  body  of  sanitary  law  in  a 
community  may  be,  there  is  a  large  uncontrolled  field 
of  obligation  and  duty  which  the  true  citizen  should 
enter.  His  house  may  conform  in  every  respect  to  the 
law,  but  the  way  in  which  he  may  use  it  is  largely  a 
matter  of  choice.  Here  he  should  rise  above  and  beyond 
the  law  and  make  his  house  a  unit  of  health,  not  only  for 
himself  and  his  family,  but  for  the  community  at  large, 
through  the  wise,  intelligent,  and  public-spirited  way  in 
which  its  use  and  activities  are  directed. 

There  are  two  interesting  tendencies  in  sanitary 
theory  and  administration  concerning  which  the  house- 
holder should  inform  himself.  The  first,  in  brief,  is  to 
lay  less  stress  than  in  the  past  on  the  environment  and 
more  on  personal  contact  as  the  medium  for  the  spread 
of  disease.  The  second  is  the  burdening  of  the  sanitary 
code  and  the  health  department  with  matters  which  in 
the  light  of  modern  knowledge  have  nothing  to  do  with 


24  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

health,  except  occasionally  in  a  very  remote  degree.  For 
example,  the  disposal  of  household  rubbish  and  garbage 
and  the  abatement  of  the  smoke  nuisance  should  be  con- 
trolled by  legal  enactments  enforced  by  competent  expert 
officials,  but  on  the  ground  of  decency,  order,  beauty, 
and  cleanliness,  rather  than  on  the  ground  of  their  effect 
on  health.  On  the  other  hand,  a  careful  study  will  show 
that  new  enactments  affecting  housing  and  involving 
health,  that  will  secure  such  facilities  for  cleanliness  as 
simpler  plumbing  and  a  cheaper  and  more  abundant 
water  supply,  are  gravely  needed. 

It  is  not  fitting  to  discuss  the  details  of  house  sani- 
tation in  this  place.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that, 
though  damp  cellars,  dark  rooms,  and  "sewer  gas"  are 
now  known  not  to  be  the  cause  of  tuberculosis,  diphtheria, 
or  typhoid  fever,  it  is  generally  believed  that  when  a 
person  is  in  vigorous  health  or  has  a  high  degree  of 
so-called  "vitality,"  he  is  usually  able  to  resist  the  attacks 
made  by  the  germs  of  those  and  similar  diseases. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  one  of  the  factors  in 
securing  this  vigor  of  body  is  the  environment.  Proper 
shelter  then  demands  free  movement  of  clean  air  both 
without  and  within  the  house,  means  for  rapid  and  com- 
plete removal  of  body  wastes,  plenty  of  diffused  light, 
such  freedom  from  standing  water,  rubbish,  dirty  streets, 
and  smoky  air  as  would  disturb  peace  of  mind,  ample 
facilities  for  cleanliness,  and  plenty  of  space  to  secure, 
at  least  at  intervals,  that  degree  of  privacy  which  health 
of  body  and  of  soul  alike  demand.  Such  are  briefly 
some  of  the  sanitary  considerations  to  be  observed  in 
housing. 


SHELTER  25 

On  the  economic  side  there  are  also  interesting 
tendencies  to  be  observed.  The  rapid  development  of 
urban  life,  fluctuations  in  the  kind  of  employment  avail- 
able with  the  accompanying  necessity  of  change  of  resi- 
dence, rapid  transit,  and  the  development  of  the  apartment 
house  are  some  of  the  modern  influences  which  affect 
housing.  The  homestead  known  to  many  generations  of 
the  same  family  has  practically  disappeared.  It  is  even 
growing  to  be  a  matter  of  uncertainty  whether  a  family 
should  own  the  house  in  which  they  live.  Nevertheless, 
there  are  circumstances  under  which  the  question  may 
very  properly  arise,  and  then  considerations  of  economy, 
convenience,  the  future  development  of  the  neighborhood, 
financial  security,  comfort,  probability  of  permanence, 
educational  value,  and  sentiment,  all  have  a  bearing  on 
the  proper  solution. 

Another  question  which  faces  the  modern  housekeeper 
is  that  of  the  relative  advantages  of  the  house,  whether 
owned  or  rented,  and  the  apartment.  The  house  furnishes 
greater  freedom,  privacy,  space,  and  comfort,  but  these 
must  be  weighed  against  the  uncertain  cost  of  operating, 
greater  amount  of  service  needed,  more  restricted  oppor- 
tunity for  absence,  and  usually  greater  distance  from 
business,  school,  and  friends,  involving  greater  expense 
in  car  fares  and  in  time  and  strength  than  would  gener- 
ally be  required  in  the  case  of  an  apartment. 

QUESTIONS 

I.  To  what  extent  have  twentieth  century  ideals  and 
practices  modified  the  idea  that  "a  man's  home  is  his 
castle,"  over  which  he  has  supreme  control? 


26  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

2.  What  are  the  essentials  of  a  hygienic  house  ? 

3.  What  public  agencies  have  you  in  your  town  for 
controlling  housing  conditions  ? 

4.  What  private   agencies  are  there   for   the   same 
purpose  ? 

5.  Are  the  housing  laws  of  your  town  adequate? 

6.  Do  they  contain  any  restrictions  which  are  need- 
lessly burdensome  ? 

7.  What  is  a  frequent  motive  for  the  adoption  of 
so-called  improvements  and  what  is  the  true  one  ? 

8.  What  changes  in  construction  are  taking  place 

(a)  for  good? 

(b)  forbad? 

9.  What  architectural  devices  or  changes  in  the  house 
in  which  you  live  would  you  suggest  which  would  tend  to 
improve  the  sanitary  conditions  ? 

10.  What  architectural  changes  in  your  house  would 
you  suggest  which  would  lessen  the  amount  of  housework 
to  be  done  ? 

11.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  in  the  ownership  of 
a  house,  e.  g.,  taxes  ? 

12.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  in  the  rental  of  an 
apartment,  e.  g.,  janitor  service? 

13.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  in  the  rental  of  a 
room  in  a  hotel,  e.  g.,  bedding? 

14.  What  causes  lead  to  renting  rather  than  owning 
a  house  ? 

15.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of 
both? 

16.  How  may  the  demoralizing  habits  which  often 


SHELTER  27 

come  from  renting  rather  than  owning  a  home  be  pre- 
vented ? 

17.  What  are  the  advantages  of  apartment  house  life  ? 

1 8.  What  factors  govern  the  amount  of  the  income 
paid  for  housing? 

19.  One-third  of  the  income  was  formerly  considered 
the  right  proportion  to  be  paid  for  rent.    Why  is  it  fixed 
lower  now  ? 

20.  Does  higher  rent  always  mean  more  total  ex- 
penditure ? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Household  Management.  Bertha  M.  Terrill.  Chicago: 
American  School  of  Home  Economics. 

Cost  of  Living,  Chapter  IV.  Ellen  H.  Richards.  New 
York :  John  Wiley  &  Sons. 

Cost  of  Shelter.  Ellen  H.  Richards.  New  York:  John 
Wiley  &  Sons. 

House  Sanitation.  Marion  Talbot.  Boston :  Whitcomb 
&  Barrows. 

Practical  Hygiene.  Charles  Harrington.  Philadelphia: 
Lea  &  Febiger. 

Care  of  a  House.  T.  M.  Clark.  New  York:  The  Mac- 
millan  Co. 

The  House.  Isabel  Bevier.  Chicago:  American  School 
of  Home  Economics. 

Principles  of  Sanitary  Science  and  the  Public  Health. 
W.  T.  Sedgwick.  New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Housing  Reform.  Lawrence  Veiller.  New  York :  Chari- 
ties Publication  Society. 


28  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

Household  Hygiene.  S.  Maria  Elliot.  Chicago :  Ameri- 
can School  of  Home  Economics. 

The  Standard  of  Living,  Chapter  V.  F.  H.  Streightoff. 
Boston :  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Preventive  Medicine  and  Hygiene.  M.  J.  Rosenau.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

The  New  Public  Health.  H.  W.  Hill.  New  York:  The 
Macmillan  Co. 

The  Housing  Problem  in  War  and  Peace.  Washington : 
Journal  of  the  American  Institute  of  Architects. 

The  Business  of  the  Household.  C.  W.  Taber.  Philadel- 
phia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 

Housing  Problems  in  America.  Proceedings  of  the  Na- 
tional Conference  on  Housing. 


CHAPTER  IV 
FOOD 

VARIED  as  are  the  changes  which  all  phases  of 
household  and  family  life  have  undergone,  in  none 
are  they  more  striking  than  in  that  which  has  to  do  with 
the  satisfying  of  the  primal  need  of  mankind — nutri- 
ment. It  is  true  that  it  is  no  new  thing  to  realize  that 
people  must  not  be  allowed  to  go  hungry.  The  new  ques- 
tions are :  What  kinds  of  food  will  best  serve  the  real 
needs  of  the  body;  in  what  quantities  shall  they  be  pro- 
vided; what  methods  of  preparation  should  be  chosen, 
and  how  can  use  be  made  of  modern  economic  and 
commercial  conditions  so  that  the  family  income  can  be 
utilized  to  bring  about  the  greatest  returns  in  health  and 
satisfaction  with  the  least  expenditure  of  time,  strength, 
and  money  ? 

The  fire  on  the  hearth,  the  spit,  the  crane,  and  the 
brick  oven  have  vanished.  Only  here  and  there  traces 
remain  of  the  churn  and  the  cheese  press,  the  curing  of 
meats,  the  drying  of  fruits  and  vegetables,  the  brewing 
of  beverages,  the  caring  for  stored  and  too  often  decay- 
ing potatoes  and  apples,  and  the  filling  of  closet  shelves 
with  jars  of  pickles  and  preserves.  In  their  places  have 
come  gas  and  electric  stoves,  the  fruit  and  vegetable 
trains  from  Florida  and  California,  the  gigantic  stock- 
yards, slaughter  houses,  and  packing  plants,  the  factories 
for  the  preparation  and  preservation  of  every  kind  of 
food  substance,  the  cold  storage  warehouse,  the  creamery, 

29 


30  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

the  Greek  and  Italian  fruit  venders,  the  telephone  to  the 
market,  and  the  mail-order  house.  In  fact,  there  are 
almost  countless  devices  of  the  spirit  of  invention  and 
of  commerce  which  give  rise  to  wholly  new  problems  in 
regard  to  proper  feeding  for  a  household. 

The  reader  must  look  elsewhere  for  a  discussion  of 
dietetic  standards  and  approved  methods  of  preparation. 
The  subject  presents  a  large  field  which  the  scientist  has 
but  recently  entered.  It  is  the  housekeeper's  duty  to  keep 
herself  informed  of  the  progress  of  sound  knowledge, 
and  to  be  wary  of  following  the  food  faddist  in  all  his 
absurd  and  grotesque  theories. 

The  following  general  principles,  however,  may  be 
laid  down  as  safe  guides.  Food  should  be  clean  and  free 
from  injurious  substances.  It  should  be  varied  in  kind 
and  sufficient  in  amount,  when  meals  are  taken  regularly, 
to  satisfy  a  hearty  appetite.  It  should  be  palatable  in 
flavor  and  attractive  in  appearance.  Meat  should  be  eaten 
in  moderation,  which  means  not  oftener  than  twice  a 
day,  preferably  once.  Milk,  vegetables,  and  fruits  should 
be  used  freely.  Natural  flavors  should  be  developed  in 
cooking,  and  the  use  of  condiments  and  artificial  flavors 
discouraged. 

Principles  such  as  these  are  founded  on  common 
sense  and  experience,  as  well  as  on  the  teachings  of 
physiology.  Some  of  the  newer  dietetic  considerations 
are  becoming  equally  plain.  For  example,  increased 
facility  and  rapidity  of  transportation  and  its  lower  cost, 
as  well  as  cold  storage  plants,  have  broken  down  the  old 
distinctions  between  the  seasons,  and  it  is  no  longer 
proper  to  urge  the  housekeeper  not  to  use  foods  which 


FOOD  31 

are  "out  of  season."  It  is  a  fortunate  development  of 
civilization  which  makes  it  possible  for  the  dweller  in 
Northern  cities  and  towns  to  have  fresh  lettuce  at  low 
cost  the  year  around,  and  strawberries  as  toothsome  and 
cheap  in  .April  as  in  June.  The  day  has  passed  when 
the  body,  starving  for  the  vegetable  acids  and  mineral 
matter  which  during  the  long,  cold  winter  have  been 
boiled  out  of  the  winter  vegetables,  has  had  to  turn  to 
"spring  medicines,"  sarsaparilla  and  the  like,  as  tonics, 
to  relieve  the  languor  and  lassitude  known  as  "spring 
fever."  The  notion  is  still  current  that  the  expenditure 
of  money  for  foods  low  in  so-called  nutritive  value  is 
most  unwise  when  the  income  is  limited,  but  this  is  a 
serious  mistake ;  and  the  Opportunity  offered  of  late  years 
to  secure  fresh  fruits  and  vegetables  and  salad  plants 
through  the  winter,  as  well  as  summer,  should  be  eagerly 
utilized,  if  housekeepers  wish  to  keep  those  dependent 
on  their  care  and  intelligence  in  good  physical  condition. 
One  proof  that  this  is  being  done  is  the  increasing 
substitution  of  fruits  in  winter  for  rich  desserts  and 
pastries.  Another  is  the  rapid  decline  of  the  old-time 
household  industry  of  "putting  up"  preserves,  which 
frequently  was  a  gauge  of  the  housewife's  thrift  and 
skill.  Even  in  sparsely  settled  communities,  certainly  in 
all  towns,  she  now  has  the  opportunity  to  serve  her 
family  with  fresh  fruits  the  year  around.  This  she  does 
at  great  saving  of  effort  and  frequently  also  of  money, 
if  every  cost  is  counted,  unless  she  is  still  held  in  the 
shackles  of  a  family  tradition  that  a  woman's  devotion 
to  her  husband  and  children  can  be  measured  by  the 
contents  of  her  preserve  closet. 


32  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

With  the  facilities  which  have  largely  increased  the 
range  of  foods  within  the  housekeeper's  choice  has  come 
the  double  danger  of  overtaxing  the  digestive  organs  by 
providing  too  great  a  variety  of  foods  at  one  meal,  and 
of  so  stimulating  the  appetite  by  a  succession  of  different 
flavors  as  to  lead  to  overeating.  The  housekeeper,  then, 
has  the  new  problem  of  guarding  against  temptation 
and  of  securing  proper  simplicity  in  the  meals  she  offers, 
rather  than  the  old  problem  of  discovering  new  foods 
and  devising  new  dishes  to  tempt  the  appetites  of  those 
under  her  care. 

The  greatly  increased  ease  with  which,  under  modern 
conditions,  food  is  obtained  and  prepared  tempts  the 
unwary  housekeeper  to  yield  to  the  caprices  of  her  family. 
Frequently  there  is  no  other  reason  for  calling  for  differ- 
ent food  from  that  which  has  been  prepared  than  the 
gratification  of  a  whim.  This  double  harm  of  introduc- 
ing unnecessary  complexity  into  the  household  processes 
and  of  developing  .undue  self-indulgence  must  be  guarded 
against. 

She  has  also  to  resist  the  existing  tendency  to  over- 
elaboration  in  preparation,  for  which,  unfortunately, 
teachers  of  cooking  are  in  part  responsible,  unless  it  may 
be  that  the  stress  of  social  rivalry  and  the  power  of 
fashion  or  imitation  may  be  held  responsible  to  a  still 
greater  degree  for  such  ill-advised  practices. 

Greater,  perhaps,  than  these  problems  are  those  which 
more  directly  result  from  the  fact  that  food  is  no  longer 
manufactured  in  the  home,  but  is  prepared  in  factories, 
often  to  the  extent  that  no  further  labor  is  needed  to 
make  it  ready  for  the  table.  The  housekeeper  was  for- 


FOOD  33 

merly  personally  familiar  with  all  the  processes  through 
which  the  food  she  used  had  passed,  even  if  she  did  not 
actually  perform  them.  She  could  base  her  judgment  as 
to  their  value  or  quality  on  personal  knowledge.  In  the 
case  of  foods  prepared  or  manufactured  outside  the  home, 
this  is  not  possible.  Accordingly  she  must  always  be  on 
her  guard  lest  she  buy  fraudulent  or  unwholesome  foods. 
Fortunately  public  sentiment  is  demanding  that  she  be 
protected  in  her  rights  by  legislative  control,  and  pure 
food  laws  are  becoming  more  generally  adopted,  and, 
with  a  fuller  realization  of  their  importance  on  the  part 
of  the  consumer,  will  be  more  rigidly  enforced. 

There  are,  however,  pitfalls  in  this  direction.  A  few 
instances  will  indicate  their  general  character.  The 
housekeeper  must  remember,  for  example,  that  a  food 
may  be  perfectly  wholesome  and  yet  have  glucose  in  it; 
for  glucose,  in  spite  of  its  evil  repute,  is  the  substance 
into  which  all  starch  and  sugar  must  be  changed  in 
order  to  be  absorbed  by  the  body.  The  use  of  preserva- 
tives is  not  necessarily  harmful,  as  has  been  shown  by 
the  practice  of  depending  on  salt,  sugar,  vinegar,  creo- 
sote and  other  substances  in  smoke.  Coloring  matter 
may  properly  be  used  to  make  foods  more  attractive,  and 
the  housekeeper  visiting  the  Pure  Food  Show  will  not 
be  unduly  alarmed  by  sensational  exhibits  of  fabrics  dyed 
with  coloring  substances  when  she  remembers  the  fruit 
stains  on  her  table  linen  or  the  attractive  colors  of  her 
fresh  vegetables.  The  use  of  so-called  substitutes,  for 
example,  when  apples  are  made  the  basis  for  a  jelly  or 
when  oleomargarine  is  substituted  for  butter,  results  not 
in  harm  to  the  health,  but,  if  the  price  which  is  paid  is 


34  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

correspondingly  low,  in  profit  to  the  purse.  Coffee  made 
up  in  part  of  roasted  cereals  may  even  prove  to  be  much 
more  wholesome  than  pure  coffee.  In  all  such  cases  the 
protection  to  the  family  lies  in  proper  labeling,  and  on 
this  point  public  opinion  and  the  administration  of  the 
law  should  permit  of  no  compromise. 

Many  improvements  in  the  handling  of  food  have 
been  introduced.  Cereals  come  in  packages,  crackers  are 
carefully  wrapped,  and  the  barrel  which  seemed  to  supply 
an  inexhaustible  number  of  rotten  apples  has  given  place 
to  the  small  basket  with  its  hand-picked,  carefully  packed 
fruit.  Such  changes  as  these  necessarily  involve  in- 
creased expense,  but  the  wise  housekeeper  often  finds 
that  the  actual  outlay  is  less  because  of  the  smaller 
amount  of  loss  or  the  improved  quality.  A  reaction, 
however,  seems  to  have  set  in,  and  many  wise  people 
are  again  urging  the  practice  of  buying  in  bulk.  The 
subject  needs  careful  study.  On  the  one  hand,  there 
is  usually  the  advantage  which  comes  from  the  whole- 
sale rate ;  on  the  other,  the  danger  of  waste  which  usually 
exists  when  there  is  more  of  an  article  on  hand  than 
is  actually  needed,  the  danger  from  spoiling,  and  the 
danger  of  infections  from  careless  handling  or  exposure 
to  dust  and  insects. 

Predigested  foods  are  on  the  market  in  great  variety 
and  with  astonishing  claims  as  to  their  merits.  It  goes 
almost  without  saying  that  the  human  body  is  most 
likely  to  be  kept  in  health  when  it  is  given  work  to  do 
which  requires  the  normal  use  of  all  its  functions.  A 
practice  which  substitutes  changes  in  foods  carried  on 
outside  the  body  in  laboratory  or  factory  for  the  natural 


FOOD  35 

processes  of  the  digestive  system  should  be  adopted  only 
under  careful  professional  advice. 

The  subject  of  the  relative  advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages of  buying  food  fully  prepared  for  the  table  may 
be  indicated  as  properly  to  be  included  among  the  difficult 
problems  which  the  housekeeper  must  solve  if  she  is  to 
secure  the  best  conditions  for  her  household. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  considerations  are  to  be  borne  in  mind  in 
determining  the  amount  and  kind  of  food  to  be  supplied 
to  the  family? 

2.  If  the  expenditure  for  food  seems  unduly  large, 
what  measures  may  be  taken  to  reduce  it  ? 

3.  What  are  the  essentials  of  "a  good  meal"? 

4.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  a 
family  table  ? 

5.  How  can  right  habits  of  feeding  be  formed  in  little 
children  ? 

6.  What  measures  may  be  taken  to  interest  the  family 
in  rational  habits  of  feeding  and  in  reasonably  adjusting 
the  time  spent  in  preparing  and  eating  food  to  the  other 
activities  of  the  household  ? 

7.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  in  preparing  food  at 
home? 

8.  What  additional  factors  must  be  paid  for  in  buying 
prepared  food  and  what  are  saved  ? 

9.  Have    community   kitchens    or   any   devices    for 
economy  in  fuel,  apparatus,  and  labor  and  reducing  waste 
of  food  been  tried  in  your  neighborhood  ? 


36  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

10.    What  measures  do  you  take  to  learn  whether  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  food  are  what  you  pay  for  ? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Food  Products.    H.  C.  Sherman.    New  York:  The  Mac- 

millan  Co. 
Chemistry  of  Food  and  Nutrition.    H.  C.  Sherman.    New 

York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Changes  in  the  Food  Supply.  L.  B.  Mendel.   New  Haven : 

Yale  University  Press. 
The  Food  Problem.     Kellogg  Taylor.     New  York :   The 

Macmillan  Co. 
The   Fundamental  Basis  of  Nutrition.     Graham   Lusk. 

New  Haven :   Yale  University  Press. 
Publications  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  and 

U.  S.  Food  Administration. 
Feeding  the  Family.     Mary  S.  Rose.     New  York:   The 

Macmillan  Co. 
Food  Study.    Mabel  T.  Wellman.    Boston :  Little,  Brown 

&Co. 
An  Adequate  Diet.    P.  G.  Stiles.    Cambridge:    Harvard 

University  Press. 

Food  for  the  Worker.    Stern  and  Spitz.    Boston :   Whit- 
comb  &  Barrows. 
Health  of  the  City.    Hollis  Godfrey.    Boston :  Houghton 

Mifflin  Co. 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 

Science.    The  World's  Food.    November,  1917. 
Food  and  the  War.    United  States  Food  Administration. 

Boston :  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 


CHAPTER  V 
CLOTHING 

THE  selection  of  clothing  suitable  in  amount  and 
kind  is  one  of  the  responsibilities  still  resting  upon 
the  head  of  the  household.  The  principles  to  be  followed 
in  meeting  this  responsibility  have,  however,  not  as  yet 
been  formulated  with  any  fullness.  In  fact,  there  is 
perhaps  no  other  household  duty  which  is  performed 
under  such  confused  and  confusing  conditions. 

It  should  be  noticed,  for  example,  that  clothing  is 
demanded  from  considerations  of  beauty,  of  decency, 
of  hygienic  fitness,  of  evidence  of  pecuniary  strength,  as 
well  as  of  warmth  and  comfort.  No  evidence  need  be 
adduced  to  prove  that  the  draping  of  the  human  form 
may  produce  most  charming  effects  of  line  and  color. 
The  requirements  of  modesty  demand  that,  with  excep- 
tions in  favor  of  the  formal  dinner  or  ball  and  the  bath- 
ing beach,  the  person  shall  be  covered.  Comfort,  too, 
and  protection  from  cold,  from  contact  with  unpleasant 
objects,  and  from  the  approach  of  insects,  ask  that  the 
form  be  covered. 

The  anthropologist  points  out  that  the  clothes  of 
today  are  related  by  inheritance  to  the  primitive  devices 
invented  for  purposes  of  sex  attraction  and  decoration. 
The  economist  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  no  way 
can  the  wealth  of  the  family  and  the  ability  to  spend 
without  regard  to  return  in  utility  be  more  easily  demon- 
strated than  by  dressing  "in  the  fashion."  By  wearing 

37 


38  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

today  costly  garments  which  are  evidently  different  from 
anything  worn  by  anybody  yesterday,  it  is  made  plain 
that  one  has  bought  since  yesterday,  and  so  can  probably 
buy  again  before  tomorrow.  The  fact  of  this  spending 
capacity  is  made  much  clearer  if  the  clothes  are  not  only 
conspicuously  new,  but  obviously  of  such  a  kind  as  to 
indicate  the  wearer's  inability  to  perform  any  arduous 
and  possibly  wage-paid  work.  The  high-heeled  shoe,  the 
tight  corset,  the  trailing  gown,  the  very  close-cut  skirt, 
possess  these  elements  of  attractiveness,  and  the  changes 
in  style,  conforming  to  no  other  law  than  the  require- 
ments for  change,  are  found  to  take  place  within  limits 
set  by  the  demand  of  obvious  waste  and  uselessness. 
The  rapid  succession  of  styles,  informing  all  the  world 
when  one's  suit  was  made  or  one's  dress  was  bought,  is 
a  constant  pressure  on  the  woman  to  keep  up  with  the 
change,  possibly  that  she  may  not  be  unlike  her  neigh- 
bor, possibly  that  all  the  world  may  know  how  well  her 
husband  is  getting  on,  possibly  that  no  one  may  suspect 
that  he  is  really  not  getting  ahead  at  all. 

The  confusion  of  these  different  ends  results  in 
strangely  difficult  tasks  for  the  woman  who  wishes  to 
use  wisely  and  discreetly  the  resources  intrusted  to  her 
for  the  satisfaction  of  her  family's  needs,  since  the  manu- 
facturer, the  merchant,  and  the  purveyor  have  not  been 
slow  to  seize  upon  the  opportunity  to  manipulate  the 
situation  to  their  own  advantage. 

Buying  is  stimulated  by  the  advertisement  showing 
the  new  fashions,  by  the  department  store  display,  by  the 
fictitious  interest  in  Easter,  by  the  early  spring  trip 
South,  by  the  late  spring  race,  by  the  summer  journey, 


CLOTHING  39 

until  every  possible  temptation  has  been  offered  in  this 
connection.  Much  is  said  about  the  overdressed  depart- 
ment store  girl  or  factory  operative;  but  no  outcry  is 
raised  against  the  "Easter  Opening''  in  the  great  depart- 
ment store,  which  prostitutes  to  the  uses  of  the  dealer 
the  natural  craving  to  be  fair  and  beautiful  when  nature 
redrapes  herself  in  verdure  and  life  springs  again  in  bud 
and  blossom  after  the  long  winter's  drab. 

There  has  been  until  very  recently  an  almost  com- 
plete absence  of  any  effort  to  devise  right  styles  of  dress, 
taking  the  lines  of  the  human  figure  as  the  basis  for 
decision.  As  to  the  adjustment  of  weight,  the  evidences 
of  durability,  the  signs  of  fraudulent  practices,  nothing 
has  as  yet  been  formulated.  Only  recently  have  investi- 
gations revealed  the  extent  to  which  the  purchaser  of 
textiles  is  the  victim  of  deceptive  processes  analogous 
to  those  practiced  in  connection  with  the  food  supply. 
And,  as  after  years  of  effort  "pure  food  laws"  have  been 
placed  on  the  statute  books  of  one  state  after  another 
and  of  the  federal  government,  "pure  textile"  laws  will 
similarly  have  to  be  enacted  by  our  legislatures.  By  these 
laws  the  manufacturers  will  be  required  to  attach  labels 
giving  reliable  information  as  to  fabrics,  in  order  that 
intelligent  buying  may  be  done. 

We  have  as  yet,  therefore,  no  such  standards  for 
the  adaptation  of  the  clothing  of  the  body  in  weight,  in 
strain,  etc.,  to  the  needs  of  the  individual  for  covering 
and  warmth,  as  we  have  in  feeding  standards  based  upon 
the  individual's  need  for  nutriment. 

In  such  studies  as  Rowntree's  "Poverty,"  Chapin's 
"Standards  of  Living,"  and  Mrs.  More's  "Wage-Earners' 


4O  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

Budgets,"  no  attempt  is  made  to  ask  with  what  clothing 
should  such  a  definite  family  be  provided.  It  is  asked, 
rather:  What  has  been  the  average  of  the  clothing  they 
have  had  and  what  any  one  family  possesses  is  judged 
by  its  relation  to  an  average  which  it  has  helped  to 
determine. 

There  are  several  other  difficulties  besides  those  con- 
nected with  the  honesty  of  the  goods.  One  interesting 
question  which  arises  in  connection  with  clothing  is 
that  of  durability.  When  the  cloth  was  the  product  of 
domestic  manufacture  representing  the  labor  of  many 
hands  for  many  days,  it  was  important  that  it  should 
wear  a  long  time  and  that  all  possible  use  should  be  got 
out  of  the  labor  which  went  with  it.  Moreover,  in  earlier 
times,  when  there  was  less  crowding,  when  sun  and  air 
had  readier  access  to  the  houses,  the  problems  of  infec- 
tion or  of  sanitary  precautions  were  less  urgent.  Now, 
however,  especially  in  cities,  where  the  smoke  constitutes 
a  nuisance,  where  the  houses  are  built  close  together  and 
admit  neither  adequate  light  nor  adequate  air,  where  in 
the  crowded  car  or  on  the  street  or  in  the  school  one 
comes  into  close  contact  with  many  whose  standards  of 
cleanliness  are  obviously  low,  and  when  the  cloth,  at  least, 
is  the  result  of  mechanical  processes,  if  the  labor  of  mak- 
ing can  be  reduced  by  simplification  of  style,  it  may  very 
well  be  that  durability  becomes  less  desirable  than  clean- 
liness assured  by  frequent  change.  The  development  of 
the  dry  cleansing  business  partly  meets  this  demand; 
but  that  business  has  objectionable  features  associated 
with  it,  and  it  may  be  that  with  increased  simplicity  of 
style  and  the  invention  of  fabrics  which  are  so  inexpen- 


CLOTHING  41 

sive  as  to  justify  very  brief  use,  greatly  improved  con- 
ditions in  hygiene  may  be  secured. 

Nor  are  the  difficulties  all  connected  with  the  fabric 
itself.  The  housekeeper  who  rises  to  the  full  measure 
of  her  responsibility  will  ask  not  only  whether  she  as  a 
purchaser  is  treated  fairly  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
cloth  and  making  of  the  garment;  she  will  ask  under 
what  conditions  was  the  work  done  upon  it  carried  on. 
Was  sweated  labor  employed  under  bad  conditions  during 
excessively  long  days  of  toil  at  wholly  inadequate  wages? 
Were  sanitary  conditions  good?  Was  there  a  working 
day  limited  by  statute,  and  a  reasonably  adequate  wage 
paid?  Until  recently,  so  little  realization  of  the  purchas- 
er's true  responsibility  has  been  developed  that  not  in- 
frequently the  attempt  to  arouse  it  has  been  made  by 
appealing  to  her  fear.  The  earlier  "sweat  shop"  laws 
were  secured  partly  by  alarming  the  well-to-do  mother 
with  regard  to  the  dangers  to  which  she  exposed  her  own 
children  when  she  bought  goods  made  in  uninspected  and 
perhaps  infected  homes.  That  appeal  is  relatively  much 
less  urged  today,  when  it  is  recognized  that  however  safe 
one  may  keep  one's  own  child  from  the  infection  which 
exists  in  the  home  where  another  child  suffers,  one 
cannot  keep  one's  own  heart  free  from  pain  and  discon- 
tent so  long  as  any  children  are  forced  to  grow  up  in 
homes  crowded  with  work,  deprived  of  maternal  care, 
while  a  scanty  and  inadequate  support  is  obtained  from 
the  mother's  work. 

The  clothing  problem  was  greatly  affected  by  the  war. 
As  various  types  of  patriotic  service  developed  and  other 
forms  of  distinction  than  that  of  economic  power  arose, 


42  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

the  influence  of  fashion  was  lessened;  and  conspicuous 
economy,  evidenced  by  continuing  to  wear  the  fashions  of 
other  years,  for  a  time  replaced  the  conspicuous  waste 
of  following  new  fashions.  To  the  extent  to  which  the 
war  made  reputable  the  professional  employment  of 
women  of  the  more  favored  classes,  those  styles  of  dress 
inconsistent  with  useful  work  quite  generally  became 
outlawed;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  principles  of  utility 
found  a  larger  place  in  the  manufacture  of  women's  cloth- 
ing. Moreover,  the  Government,  by  appropriating  a  great 
part  of  the  wool  supply  to  the  clothing  of  soldiers  and 
sailors,  and  by  prescribing  the  number  and  varieties  of 
certain  articles  of  wearing  apparel,  limited  the  range 
of  choice  and  so  simplified  the  problem.  The  Government 
also  fixed  in  the  contracts  under  which  war  supplies  were 
manufactured  conditions  of  work  and  of  pay,  and  as  a 
result  standards  as  to  hygiene,  factory  organization,  equal 
pay,  adequate  wage-scale,  and  collective  bargaining  were 
developed,  which  may  to  some  extent  continue.  Moreover, 
the  great  reduction  in  the  labor  supply  placed  the  work- 
ing and  the  employing  groups  more  nearly  on  an  equality 
in  their  bargaining,  and  through  the  adoption  of  agree- 
ments between  the  two  an  industry  which  before  was 
characterized  by  chronic  industrial  warfare  has  been 
taking  on  the  habits  of  peaceful  and  therefore  uninter- 
rupted activity.  However,  owing  to  the  rapid  accumula- 
tion of  great  fortunes  in  the  hands  of  persons  who  do  not 
regard  their  newly  acquired  economic  power  as  a  trust, 
a  period  of  great  confusion  in  questions  of  dress  and  of 
fashion  may  be  anticipated,  and  the  recurrence  of  styles 
having  no  claim  to  attention  except  their  novelty  may  be 


CLOTHING  43 

expected.  The  coming  years,  during  which  it  will  be  nec- 
essary to  find  clothing  for  great  masses  of  the  people  left 
well-nigh  naked  in  devastated  and  war-stricken  countries, 
offer  a  great  opportunity  to  the  responsible  and  public- 
spirited  housewife  who  desires  to  use  her  influence  in  the 
direction  of  reducing  misery  and  of  increasing  rational 
living  everywhere. 

It  is  clear  that  the  duty  of  selecting  wearing  apparel 
for  the  household  is  an  opportunity  of  the  richest  kind. 
Intelligent  and  honest  performance  of  that  duty  leads  into 
some  of  the  most  important  undertakings  of  the  times, 
and  opens  the  way  into  wide  and  invaluable  service. 

Nothing  has  been  said  here  in  the  way  of  specific 
instructions.  No  discussion  of  the  relative  merits  of 
cotton,  wool,  linen,  and  silk  is  in  place.  The  intelligent 
reader  is  aware  that  for  the  clothing  of  her  new  baby 
she  should  have  instructions  based  on  the  most  recent 
knowledge  of  infant  hygiene.  Decisions  with  reference 
to  the  clothing  of  each  member  of  her  household  must 
rest  upon  consideration  of  climate,  methods  of  house 
construction  and  of  heating,  of  such  physical  peculiarities 
as  hearty  or  delicate  appetites,  vigorous  or  inactive  bodily 
habits,  and  other  factors  of  that  kind.  It  may  be  noted 
that  experts  dealing  with  dependent  families  consider 
clothing  as  a  means  of  self-expression  of  special  interest 
and  importance  during  adolescence  and  youth.  The  prob- 
lem of  directing  a  child's  taste  in  clothing,  and  at  the  same 
time  gratifying  his  often  absurd  desire  for  the  novel  or 
ultrafashionable  article  of  apparel,  often  taxes  all  a 
mother's  wisdom  and  tact.  Here,  as  in  much  of  her 
other  spending,  her  chief  preparation  must  be  a 


44  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

sympathetic  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  task, 
a  determination  to  buy  for  use,  not  for  display,  a  patient 
taking  account  of  experience,  and  a  courageous  attitude 
to  novel  experiments  suggested  for  the  purpose  of  set- 
tling vexed  questions  in  maintaining  the  proper  relations 
between  body  temperature  and  outside  temperature,  in 
giving  fitting  dignity  to  the  bodies  of  children  in  their 
own  minds,  and  in  adequately  meeting  the  demands  for 
beauty  and  for  reasonable  conformity  with  the  practices 
of  those  about  her. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  principles   do   you    follow   in   determining 
what  garments  you  will  provide  for  your  children  ? 

2.  Having  determined  the  number  and  kind,  what 
decides  the  question  of  buying  ready-made,  or  making  at 
home? 

3.  If  you  buy  ready-made  garments,  what  informa- 
tion do  you  demand  with  reference  to  the  conditions 
under  which  they  are  made  ? 

4.  Do  you  ask  any  questions  as  to  the  conditions  of 
work  prevailing  in  the  shop  where  they  are  sold  ? 

5.  Discuss  the  relative  merits  of  wool,  cotton,  silk, 
and  linen  for  garments  to  be  worn  next  to  the  person. 

6.  What  connection  is  there  between  the  covering  of 
the  body  and  the  dietetic  needs  of  the  body? 

7.  What  factors  do  you  consider  constitute  "a  bar- 
gain" in  buying  clothing? 

8.  What  part  do  you  take  in  securing  better  condi- 
tions   for  the   work  people  who  handle  your  clothing 
before  you  buy  it? 


CLOTHING  45 

9.    In  what  ways  is  it  possible  to  express  individual- 
ity in  clothing  without  striking  disregard  of  prevailing 

styles  ? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Feminism  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  Chapters  IV  and 

V.    Katherine  S.  Anthony.    New  York :  Henry  Holt 

&Co. 
The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class,  Chapters  I-VIL    T.  B. 

Veblen.    New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Law  and  Order  in  Industry.    J.  H.  Cohen.    New  York: 

The  Macmillan  Co. 
Clothing  for  Women.     L.  I.  Baldt.     Philadelphia :  J.  B. 

Lippincott  Co. 
Household  Textiles.    C.  M.  Gibbs.    Boston:    Whitcomb 

&  Barrows. 
Textiles.     Woolman  and  McGowan.     New  York:  The 

Macmillan  Co. 
Clothing  and  Health.    Kinne  and  Cooley.    New  York: 

The  Macmillan  Co. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.    Nos.  135,  143,  161,  186, 

187,  198. 
The  Cost  of  Living,  Chapter  VII.    E.  H.  Richards.    New 

York :   J.  Wiley  &  Sons. 
The  Standard  of  Living  among  Workingmen's  Families 

in   New   York   City.     R.   C.   Chapin.     New   York: 

Charities  Publication  Committee. 
Some  Ethical  Gains  through  Legislation.  Florence  Kelley. 

New  York :   The  Macmillan  Co. 
The  Woman  Who  Spends.     B.  J.  Richardson.     Boston: 

Whitcomb  &  Barrows. 


46  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

Fatigue  and  Efficiency.  Josephine  Goldmark.  New  York : 

Charities  Publication  Committee. 
Publications,  National  Consumers'  League.  Mrs.  Florence 

Kelley,  Secretary,  289  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York  City. 
Publications,  National  Child  Labor  Committee.    Owen  R. 

Lovejoy,  Secretary,  105  East  22d  St.,  New  York  City. 
Publications,  American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation. 

John  B.  Andrews,  Secretary,  131  East  23d  St.,  New 

York  City. 


CHAPTER  VI 
MANAGEMENT 

'  I  ^HERE  is  a  great  temptation  to  prefix  the  word 
-••  "scientific"  to  the  heading  of  this  chapter.  On 
all  sides  is  heard  the  phrase,  "  scientific  management." 
The  newspaper  and  the  magazine,  the  platform  speaker 
and  the  economist,  all  use  it  with  equal  glibness.  The 
manager  in  his  office,  the  foreman  with  his  gang,  and 
the  director  at  his  meeting  are  all  cudgeling  their  brains 
or  working  out  calculations  so  that  the  returns  from  the 
human  labor  they  control  will  be  as  profitable  as  possible 
in  terms  of  dollars  and  cents.  It  is  true  that  the  house- 
hold is  lagging  in  making  application  of  this  form  of 
efficiency.  The  reason  is  not  often  formulated,  although 
it  is  doubtless  unconsciously  felt.  The  fact  is  that  the 
household  is  not  a  form  of  organization  whose  purpose 
is  pecuniary  profit.  It  must  surely  be  run  on  a  basis 
which  means  that  the  expenditures  shall  not  exceed  the 
income  and  the  amount  of  money  invested  shall  not  be 
greater  than  the  value  of  the  goods  bought.  But  the 
returns  from  scientific  household  management  must  also 
be  in  terms  of  comfort,  satisfaction,  enjoyment,  growth, 
education,  and  individual  and  group  efficiency.  These  are 
reasons  which  give  ample  scope  for  processes  that  are  not 
purely  mechanical,  but  demand  judgment,  discretion, 
forethought,  and,  in  fact,  rather  rare  ability  in  the 
administration  of  the  household,  especially  of  one  with 
several  children  and  a  limited  income. 

47 


48  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

The  "scientific  management"  of  the  household  in 
the  full  sense  presupposes  a  competent  manager,  one 
who  knows  all  the  resources  at  her  command  and  who 
has  a  clear  conception  of  the  returns  she  wishes  to 
secure.  It  is  frequently  thought  that  she  must  be  able 
to  perform  all  the  processes  which  she  directs,  but  this 
demand  is  often  unnecessary,  provided  she  knows  the 
general  principles  involved  and  can  estimate  with  a  fair 
degree  of  accuracy  the  cost  in  money  and  the  outlay  in 
time  and  strength,  and  can  suggest  more  expeditious 
or  less  costly  methods.  It  is  no  longer  necessary  for  a 
housewife  to  be  able  to  cure  a  ham  or  to  make  yeast. 
Year  by  year,  industries  are  passing  out  of  her  domain. 
Even  a  knowledge  of  the  technique  of  bread-making  is 
no  longer  an  essential  part  of  the  housekeeper's  equip- 
ment. But,  if  she  has  bread  made  at  home,  she  still 
needs  to  know,  if  she  does  not  do  the  work  herself,  what 
equipment  and  what  time  are  needed  to  produce  a  satis- 
factory result  with  the  skilled  labor  she  employs.  If  she 
has  not  the  skilled  labor  within  her  home,  she  will  find 
that  the  economical  and  satisfactory  method  will  be  to 
buy  bread  from  an  outside  factory,  where  skilled  labor 
is  employed  under  hygienic  and  fair  conditions  and  clean, 
wholesome  materials  are  used. 

The  present-day  housekeeper,  especially  in  urban 
communities  or  under  the  stimulus  of  the  "Home" 
magazine,  is  under  constant  temptation  to  elaborate  and 
multiply  the  number  of  household  processes  and  to  slip 
gradually  into  a  standard  of  what  is  usually  called 
"living,"  but  is  often  quite  the  reverse,  which  makes 
of  the  daytime  hours  a  series  of  confused  puzzles  as  to 


MANAGEMENT  49 

how  to  fit  in  all  the  things  which  must  be  done  and  of  the 
night-time  hours  a  period  of  racked  nerves  and  wearied 
flesh.  The  process  is  often  quite  insidious.  More  fre- 
quent change  of  table  linen,  dishes  of  olives  or  bonbons, 
finger  bowls,  the  entire  substitution  of  service  by  the 
maid  for  the  family  "helping"  at  the  table,  more  cere- 
mony in  waiting  on  the  door  bell — one  after  another 
come  the  changes  of  style,  often  without  increase  of  in- 
come or  of  service,  prompted  by  the  desire  to  make 
a  "good  appearance,"  regardless  of  those  principles  of 
comfort  and  honesty  which  should  be  fundamental.  Here 
comes  an  opportunity  for  really  scientific  management. 
The  question  as  to  what  is  essential  for  the  welfare  of 
the  household  must  be  frankly  put  and  intelligently 
answered.  Ignoring  the  question  or  timidly  yielding  to 
the  pressure  of  fashion  or  social  competition  will  never 
give  the  feeling  of  freedom  or  the  conviction  of  sincerity 
which  are  the  basis  of  true  home  life  and  of  domestic 
happiness. 

"Scientific  management"  in  the  shop  means  the 
introduction  and  skilled  use  of  the  best  mechanical  appli- 
ances for  doing  the  work  and  measures  for  keeping  them 
in  a  state  of  perfect  repair.  Here  the  present-day  house- 
keeper has  much  to  learn,  for,  as  a  rule,  she  is  woefully 
unscientific.  The  problem  is  not  solved  by  buying  every 
mechanical  device  which  a  honey-tongued  agent  extols. 
The  housekeeper  must  determine  whether  the  paring 
machine  will  be  a  real  economy  in  the  hands  of  her  un- 
skilled maid,  who  is  already  efficient  with  a  paring  knife. 
And  if  the  paring  knife  is  to  be  the  tool  used,  it  must 
always  be  good  of  its  kind  and  in  repair.  No  manager 


5<D  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

of  a  shop  would  ever  expect  a  satisfactory  or  remunera- 
tive output  if  his  work-people  were  allowed  to  work  with 
tools  of  such  poor  quality  as  are  found  in  many  kitchens. 
All  that  is  said  on  this  point  applies  with  still  greater 
force  to  the  worker.  The  employer,  of  course,  must 
determine  the  degree  of  skill  which  she  will  seek  for  in 
her  employee.  Her  duty,  then,  is  to  maintain  conditions 
of  life  and  work,  such  as  hours  of  labor,  a  due  amount 
of  personal  freedom  and  recreation,  sleeping  accommo- 
dations, intelligent  direction,  and  routine  of  work,  which 
will  result  in  her  securing  the  maximum  of  efficiency 
from  the  work-woman. 

Forethought  is  a  quality  which  has  even  more  play 
in  scientific  household  management  than  in  business,  and 
yet,  in  these  modern  days,  its  value  is  practically  ignored. 
This  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  ease  with  which,  by  means 
of  the  telephone  and  the  delivery  wagon,  the  ready- to-eat 
and  the  ready-to-wear  article  may  be  brought  to  hand  and 
the  threatened  catastrophe  be  an  agony  of  but  a  few  hours 
or  even  minutes.  Another  reason  lies  in  frequent  lack 
of  familiarity  on  the  part  of  the  housekeeper  with  the 
processes  of  her  household,  the  materials  necessary  for 
meeting  its  needs,  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  efficiency 
of  her  domestic  helper.  Forethought  is  not  synonymous 
with  worry,  nagging,  or  slavery.  It  consists  in  an  intelli- 
gent provision  for  future  but  certain  needs  before  they 
actually  arise,  and  such  order  and  system  as  will  lead  to 
genuine  comfort.  The  so-called  "emergencies,"  which 
seem  to  make  up  a  large  part  of  the  activities  of  some 
households,  are  for  the  most  part  needless.  It  would,  in 
fact,  be  difficult  to  name  more  than  a  very  few  emer- 


MANAGEMENT  51 

gencies  which  could  not  be  avoided  by  a  small  use  of 
sound  sense. 

In  the  olden  time,  very  little  money  was  actually 
handled  or  used  in  the  management  of  a  household.  The 
goods  which  were  produced  in  excess  were  bartered  for 
the  few  other  goods  needed.  Labor  was  seldom  paid  for 
in  money.  This  is  true  to  some  extent  in  a  few  com- 
munities today,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  system  prevails 
of  a  money  income  to  be  expended  as  money  payment 
for  household  supplies.  There  results,  then,  the  new 
need  of  a  system  of  accounts.  Many  bookkeeping  de- 
vices for  housekeepers  have  been  proposed,  but  most 
of  them  are  complex,  mechanical,  and  fail  completely  to 
accomplish  their  purpose,  which  should  be  not  merely 
to  show  for  what  the  money  has  been  spent,  but  how  it 
might  be  more  wisely  spent. 

Closely  connected  with  this  problem  in  management 
is  that  which  has  to  do  with  the  care  of  money  resources, 
and  especially  with  investments  for  future  needs.  Poets 
and  prophets  are  seeing  visions  of  a  social  order,  when 
no  man  shall  steal  from  the  labor  of  another  man,  and 
when,  in  the  spirit  of  Brotherhood,  all  who  are  able- 
bodied  shall  labor  and  the  weak,  the  sick,  the  crippled, 
the  defective,  and  the  aged  shall  be  the  care  of  the  strong 
and  the  young.  But  in  spite  of  many  signs  of  growing 
discontent  with  the  present  industrial  and  social  order, 
a  radical  change  is  not  in  the  near  future,  and,  accord- 
ingly, a  problem  in  the  management  of  the  household 
is  how  best  to  take  care  of  those  resources  which  the 
study  of  the  family  needs  has  shown  can  be  set  aside 
after  the  satisfaction  of  daily  wants.  The  problem  is  one 


52  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

which  cannot  be  answered  in  detail  in  this  place.  It 
hardly  ever  presents  itself  twice  in  the  same  form  and 
the  answers  are  correspondingly  varied.  The  possibili- 
ties, such  as  insurance,  savings-bank  account,  national 
securities,  the  family  homestead,  or  the  education  of  the 
children  along  special  lines,  may  well  be  considered  an 
important  phase  of  management  for  the  family  to  study 
over  together. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  the  problem  of  invest- 
ment as  well  as  that  of  charitable  giving  was  wholly 
altered  by  the  war  and  by  the  needs  growing  out  of  war. 
The  Liberty  Loans  and  "drives"  for  such  extra-govern- 
mental agencies  as  the  Red  Cross  and  Community  Service 
indicate  lines  of  investment,  as  -well  as  of  contribution, 
whose  era  of  usefulness  has  not  passed.  This  does  not 
affect  the  thesis  that  these  undertakings  and  decisions 
should  be  acted  upon  by  the  family  group  as  a  whole. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  modern  conditions  especially  affect  house- 
hold methods  ? 

2.  In  what  way  and  to  what  extent,  if  at  all,  should 
household  management  use  modern  business  methods  ? 

3.  In  order  to  decide  whether  the  administration  of 
a  household  is  really  economical,  what  points  must  be 
borne  in  mind? 

4.  What   household   interests   and   activities   afford 
special  opportunity  for  choice  as  against  drift? 

5.  What  tests  will  you  apply  to  desired  improve- 
ments before  you  decide  that  you  should  adopt  them  ? 


MANAGEMENT  53 

6.  In  what  respects,  if  any,  is  the  telephone  an  eco- 
nomical investment? 

7.  What  are  the  arguments  for  and  against  the  reten- 
tion of  "spring  cleaning"? 

8.  Do  you  distinguish  between  hygienic  and  aesthetic 
cleanliness  ? 

9.  What  use  can  be  made  of  your  system  of  house- 
hold accounts  to  bring  about  more  scientific  management  ? 

10.  Name  some  of  the  proposed  conditions  which  are 
expected  to  improve  household  and  family  life. 

11.  Why  do  they  frequently  fail  in  this  result? 

12.  Make  a  list  of  incidental  household  expenses  which 
are  not  likely  to  be  provided  for  in  advance. 

13.  What  determines  the  real  economy  in  the  purchase 
and  use  of  mechanical  appliances  ? 

14.  What  other  expenses  than  that  of  plumbing  re- 
pairs are  due  chiefly  to  neglect  ? 

15.  Make  a  list  of  items  of  waste  and  drudgery  that 
might  leave  the  house  to  advantage. 

16.  Have  you  made  any  study  of  the  different  motions 
and  the  time  involved  in  doing  housework,  such  as  clean- 
ing a  room  or  washing  the  dinner  dishes,  with  a  view  to 
greater  economy? 

17.  Have  you  calculated  whether  the  continued  use 
of  broken,  antiquated,  and  inconvenient  equipment  is  truly 
economical,  or  whether  it  uses  up  strength  and  time  in 
such  a  way  that  there  is  waste  at  other  points,  such  as  care 
of  children? 

1 8.  Is  it  possible  to  cooperate  with  your  neighbors 
in  the  use  of  such  labor  and  strength-saving  devices  as 
vacuum  cleaners  and  washing  machines? 


54  THK    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

19.  Before   deciding  on  an  elaborate  table   service, 
such  as  a  bread  and  butter  plate,  another  course,  a  daily 
change  of  table  linen,  do  you  estimate  the  added  time 
and  strength  required  of  the  maid  ? 

20.  In  estimating  whether  the  wages  you  pay  a  cook 
are  high  or  low,  do  you  take  into  account  the  food  burned 
or  wasted  or  stolen,  or  other  evidence  of  her  lack  of  skill, 
thrift,  or  honesty? 

21.  Do  you  know  how  long  it  should  take  your  maid 
to  do  any  given  piece  of  work,  such  as  cleaning  the  silver 
or  washing  the  windows  ? 

22.  What  investments  should  be  made  in  a  family 
with  children  ? 

23.  What  means  can  you  devise   for  lowering  the 
cost  of  living  without  the  sacrifice  either  of  real  comfort 
or  of  efficiency? 

24.  What  evidence  does  your  household  furnish  that 
the   prevailing   high   cost   of   living   is   due    in   part   to 
extravagant  standards? 

25.  Do  you,  with  one  girl  doing  "general  housework," 
attempt  to  maintain  the  style  of  an  establishment  cared 
for  by  three  maids  ? 

26.  What  causes  of  friction,  discomfort,  or  annoy- 
ance in  your  home  can  be  removed? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Care  of  a  House.     T.  M.  Clark.     New  York:   The  Mac- 

millan  Co. 
Euthenics.     Ellen   H.   Richards.     Boston:  Whitcomb  & 

Barrows. 


MANAGEMENT  55 

Household  Management.  Bertha  M.  Terrill.  Chicago: 
American  School  of  Household  Economics. 

Fuels  of  the  Household.  Marian  White.  Boston :  Whit- 
comb  &  Barrows. 

Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning.  Richards  and 
Elliott.  Boston:  Whitcomb  &  Barrows. 

Cost  of  Living.  Ellen  H.  Richards.  New  York:  John 
Wiley  &  Sons. 

The  Efficient  Kitchen.  Georgie  B.  Child.  New  York: 
Robert  M.  McBride  &  Co. 

Home  Efficiency.  M.  B.  and  R.  W.  Bruere.  New  York : 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

Lower  Living  Costs  in  Cities.  C.  L.  King.  New  York : 
D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

The  Business  of  the  Household.  C.  W.  Taber.  Philadel^ 
phia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 

Household  Management.  Florence  Nesbitt.  New  York : 
Russell  Sage  Foundation. 

Experiment  in  Household  Finance.  J.  H.  Canfield.  Cos- 
mopolitan, July,  1902. 

The  Cooperative  Family.  F.  E.  Leupp.  Atlantic  Monthly, 
December,  1909. 

Mechanics  of  the  Household.  E.  S.  Keene.  New  York : 
McGraw-Hill  Book  Co. 

The  Home  and  the  Family.  Kinne  and  Cooley.  New 
York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Household  Engineering.  Christine  Frederick.  Chicago: 
American  School  of  Home  Economics. 

U.  S.  Department  of  Commerce.  Bureau  of  Standards 
Circulars  55,  70,  75. 


CHAPTER  VII 
DOMESTIC  SERVICE 

AMONG  the  most  difficult  questions  which  present 
themselves  to  the  housekeeper  are  those  connected 
with  securing  help  in  the  performance  of  her  household 
tasks.  There  are  the  various  things  which  must  be  done 
to  keep  the  house  a  clean,  attractive,  well-ordered  place 
in  which  to  live  and  to  maintain  the  machinery  for  the 
daily  feeding,  the  nightly  sleeping,  the  periodic  dressing 
of  children,  and  the  cleansing  of  linen,  garments,  and 
places  used.  Which  of  these  tasks  shall  be  performed  by 
members  of  the  family,  which  by  persons  who  live  with 
the  family  though  not  of  it,  which  by  persons  who  come 
in  to  perform  the  task  and  go  when  it  is  done,  and  which 
by  those  to  whom  the  task  can  be  taken,  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  questions  of  administration.  There  are  com- 
munities, few  and  far  between,  in  which  domestic  service 
is  almost  eliminated  as  a  household  difficulty.  In  a  city 
in  which  the  laundry  business  has  been  well  organized,  so 
that  the  housekeeper  can  both  risk  her  garments  and  pay 
the  bills,  where  it  is  possible  to  secure  at  reasonable  rates 
fairly  skilled  service  by  the  hour  or  by  the  task  (as  in 
the  case  of  the  so-called  employment  agencies  generally 
conducted  by  Japanese  in  San  Francisco),  where  the  deli- 
catessen shops  make  easy  the  private  eating  of  prepared 
dishes  and  the  restaurants  tempt  to  the  congregate  dining- 
room,  and  where  perhaps  the  climate  is  such  as  to  reduce 
to  a  minimum  the  need  of  fires  and  the  fuel  gives  rise  to 

56 


DOMESTIC    SERVICE  57 

little  dust  and  smoke,  the  household  tasks  may  be  reduced 
to  the  daily  putting  in  order,  caring  for  the  children  in 
the  group,  and  doing  a  small  amount  of  work  in  connec- 
tion with  the  meals.  With  the  invention  of  labor-saving 
devices,  too,  and  the  development  of  collective,  perhaps 
municipal,  provision  of  light,  water,  and  heat,  the  task 
is  further  simplified.  In  households  in  which  the  mother 
and  daughters  have  acquired  the  household  arts,  are 
physically  strong,  and  have  administrative  capacity,  the 
maid-servant  may  be  entirely  dispensed  with.  For  many 
housekeepers,  however,  whose  physical  strength  is  not 
great,  whose  early  training  in  the  household  arts  has  been 
inadequate,  or  who  have  outside  interests,  the  need  of 
intelligent  and  skilled  service  within  the  home  is  very 
urgent  and  today  often  satisfied  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty. The  reasons  for  this  are  interesting  and  possibly 
worth  reviewing  at  this  point. 

In  the  first  place,  although  the  relationship  of  mistress 
and  maid  is  a  relationship  with  which  well-nigh  uni- 
versally acknowledged  difficulties  are  associated,  it  has 
until  recently  been  the  subject  of  little  careful  or  scien- 
tific study.  Since  any  one  can  enroll  herself  among  the 
so-called  domestic  servants,  however  little  training  she 
may  have  or  however  lacking  in  capital  of  any  sort,  and 
because  the  products  of  the  labor  are  not  only  transient 
in  character  but  measured  in  terms,  not  of  profit  but  of 
comfort  and  well-being,  much  less  attention  has  been 
given  to  it  than  to  factory  or  commercial  employment. 
Part  of  this  failure  to  observe  closely  and  to  analyze 
adequately  the  factors  in  the  situation  is  also  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  immediate  parties  to  the  wage-bargain  in 


5  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

this  case  are  women,  often  married  or  of  less  than  full 
age,  and  so  not  only  legally  incapable  but  lacking  induce- 
ment to  scan  their  acts  closely. 

Undoubtedly  the  historical  association  of  this  relation- 
ship with  that  of  master  and  slave,  master  and  redemp- 
tioner,  and  master  and  apprentice,  all  involving  both 
legal  and  social  inferiority,  has  something  to  do  with 
the  contempt  often  felt  not  only  for  the  maid-servant  as 
an  individual,  but  for  the  relationship  itself.  "Menial," 
which  once  suggested  "within  the  walls"  (mocnia),  has 
become  synonymous  with  "despicable."  The  stigma  of 
social  inferiority  attaches  at  the  present  time;  the  maid 
is  addressed  by  her  first  instead  of  by  her  family  name, 
is  excluded  from  social  intercourse  with  the  group  she 
serves,  and  is  often  regarded  as  socially  below  the  worker 
in  the  factory  and  the  shop.  At  present,  of  course,  these 
differences  are  most  marked  in  those  communities  in 
which  the  domestic  servant  group  is  wholly  or  largely 
colored  and  where  the  shadow  of  slavery  still  is  heaviest; 
and  the  fact  that,  in  other  sections  of  the  country,  the 
great  majority  of  those  who  find  their  way  into  this 
kind  of  employment  are  foreign-born  or  children  of 
foreigners  undoubtedly  retards  the  establishment  of  a 
more  democratic  relationship,  and  perhaps  hinders  the 
more  rapid  awakening  of  housekeepers  to  the  desirability 
of  a  change  of  attitude  on  this  question.  They  often  feel 
a  contempt  for  the  person  of  color  or  for  the  foreign 
girl  who  serves,  and  they  continue  to  despise  the  service 
she  renders. 

Certain  associations  with  the  earlier  legal  peculiari- 
ties too,  as  well  as  with  the  social  differences,  impede  the 


DOMESTIC    SERVICE  59 

rational  consideration  and  consequent  improvement  of 
this  occupation.  The  old  law  books  said  that  the  maid 
was  under  a  duty  to  obey  all  "lawful  orders,"  and  were 
full  of  illustrations  of  how  harsh  and  arbitrary  an  order 
might  be  and  still  be  "lawful."  This  meant,  of  course, 
that  the  mistress  was  entitled  to  the  use  of  the  person 
of  the  maid  rather  than  to  the  product  of  her  labor,  and 
the  implication  of  something  very  like  servitude  was 
therefore  present.  Another  peculiarity  of  this  relation- 
ship is  its  so-called  "entirety."  If  either  party  fails  to 
perform  in  full  the  obligation  undertaken,  she  forfeits 
the  right  to  claim  any  fulfillment  by  the  other  party.  If, 
for  example,  the  maid  has  undertaken  to  work  for  a 
week,  and  quits  after  three  days  without  fault  on  the 
mistress's  part,  no  wages  can  be  claimed  for  the  three 
days'  work.  On  the  other  hand,  if,  after  one  day,  the 
mistress  discharges  without  good  cause,  the  entire  week's 
pay  may  be  claimed.  This  doctrine  does  not  prevail  in 
all  communities.  Some  states,  New  Hampshire,  Kansas, 
and  a  number  of  others,  have  adopted  an  equitable  theory 
that  since  the  employer  has  been  enriched  by  the  service 
performed,  and  cannot  return  it,  she  will  be  called  upon 
to  pay  what  the  service  was  reasonably  worth.  More- 
over, whether  the  agreement  was  for  a  given  period  or 
not  is  often  a  difficult  question  of  fact,  to  be  determined 
in  the  light  of  the  custom  prevailing  in  any  given  locality. 
So  apt  is  there  to  be  misunderstanding  on  this  point 
that  in  some  cities,  notably  New  York,  the  Legal  Aid 
Society  has  issued  statements  warning  both  mistresses 
and  maids  upon  this  subject,  and  urging  them  to  make 
clear  to  each  other  their  intention  in  the  matter  and  to 
be  prepared  to  fulfill  their  obligation. 


6O  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

The  domestic  employer  is  thus  legally  and  socially 
more  advantageously  placed  than  the  domestic  employee. 
The  nature  of  the  demand  for  service  of  this  kind,  how- 
ever, is  so  peculiar,  and  the  conditions  under  which  it 
presents  itself  so  unlike  other  kinds  of  demand  for  wage- 
workers,  that  in  some  respects  the  domestic  servant  is  at 
a  distinct  advantage  as  compared  with  other  wage-earning 
women.  In  industrial  and  mercantile  establishments  the 
employer  is  at  an  advantage  as  compared  with  his  pro- 
spective employee,  in  knowledge  of  the  business  and  of 
the  market,  in  ability  to  wait  and  in  bargaining  skill. 
In  domestic  establishments,  on  the  other  hand,  the  oppo- 
site is  true.  Here  the  employee  knows  the  job,  knows 
the  market,  has  the  power  to  wait  and  bargaining  skill 
probably  greater  than  the  employer.  The  result  has  been 
that,  without  any  organization  and  without  combinations 
of  domestics  to  do  collective  bargaining,  wages,  hours, 
and  working  conditions  have  in  many  communities  been 
very  considerably  improved  for  groups  of  workers.  These 
changes,  being  due  not  to  any  well-considered  plan, 
worked  out  on  the  basis  of  a  careful  study  of  the  occu- 
pation, but  rather  to  individual  and  often  ill-considered 
and  ill-advised  whims  on  the  part  of  maid-servants,  have 
done  little  to  standardize  the  service  as  a  whole  and  to 
make  things  better  for  those  workers  who  lack  the  spe- 
cial abilities  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  For 
some,  therefore,  wages  have  been  raised,  the  half-day 
out  secured,  limitations  placed  on  evening  work,  privi- 
leges of  a  social  kind  obtained,  and  better  living  condi- 
tions sometimes  demanded.  These  are  all  good  so  far 
as  they  go.  But  there  have  been  few  suggestions  as  to 


DOMESTIC    SERVICE  6l 

standards  of  work  or  methods  of  administration.  Labor- 
saving  devices  have  not  been  invented  or  structural 
changes  in  the  house  of  a  kind  likely  to  facilitate  work 
proposed. 

Other  features  of  the  relationship  which  distinguish 
it  from  most  wage-bargains  are,  first,  the  practice  of 
paying  partly  in  kind.  The  "living  in"  system,  in  ac- 
cordance with  which  the  employee  is  housed  and  fed 
by  the  employer,  is  found  in  no  other  occupation  in  this 
country,  except  in  the  case  of  agricultural  labor  and  in 
construction  work  done  by  gangs.  It  is  being  much  dis- 
cussed in  connection  with  the  shop  assistants  in  England, 
where  it  still  survives,  and  many  objections  urged  against 
it  there  could  be  with  equal  force  urged  against  it  in 
the  case  of  domestic  labor  here.  These  objections  are 
chiefly  three.  The  first  is  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  standardize  the  accommodations  provided. 
The  room  occupied  by  one  maid  may  be  thoroughly  com- 
fortable, adequate  in  size,  attractively  furnished,  and 
wholly  suitable,  and  her  meals  may  be  abundant,  palatable, 
perhaps  lavish,  while  a  maid  in  a  neighboring  house- 
hold may  be  housed  under  wholly  unsuitable  conditions 
and  expected  to  content  herself  with  food  inadequate  in 
amount  and  unattractive  in  kind. 

A  second  objection  to  the  "living  in"  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  maid,  while  physically  within  the  family 
group,  is  spiritually  separated  from  them  by  the  social 
barrier  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  Although 
she  lives  in  the  house,  she  gives  no  account  of  her  goings 
or  comings ;  she  is  therefore  without  the  protection 
furnished  by  her  own  family's  knowledge  of  her  move- 


62  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

ments,  and  the  family  with  which  she  lives  supplies  no 
substitute.  On  this  account,  the  employment  is  considered 
by  students  of  the  social  evil,  by  wardens  of  reforma- 
tories for  women,  and  by  those  familiar  with  the  history 
of  the  girls  who  have  been  drafted  into  lives  of  immo- 
rality, as  a  conspicuously  "dangerous  trade." 

A  third  consequence  of  the  "living  in"  system  is  that 
it  becomes  more  difficult  to  standardize  the  hours  of 
work.  More  and  more  the  community  is  recognizing 
the  advantages  of  a  standardized  day.  Many  states  have 
limited  the  hours  of  employment  of  women  in  factories 
and  workshops,  possibly  in  mercantile  establishments.  In 
some  states  night  work  is  prohibited  for  such  groups 
of  workers.  But  when  the  maid  lives  in,  so  that  she  can 
hear  the  front  door  and  telephone  bells,  why  should  she 
not  answer  them;  why  not  call  on  her  to  get  the  early 
breakfast,  the  late  supper,  or  to  render  any  service  needed 
between  those  extremes  of  the  day? 

This  lack  of  standardization  in  the  accommodations 
and  the  length  of  working  day  is  characteristic  of  most 
features  of  domestic  service,  and  might  by  a  superficial 
student  be  ascribed  to  the  nature  of  the  tasks  performed. 
That  this  is  not  the  true  explanation  is  shown  by  the 
rapidity  with  which  many  forms  of  personal  service  are 
now  being  organized  and,  as  it  were,  professionalized, 
as  the  industrial  processes  were  organized  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  demand  for  the 
midday  meal  near  the  place  of  business  is  developing 
new  kinds  of  "waiting  on  table."  The  waitress,  the  boy 
behind  the  lunch  counter,  and  the  cafeticre  where  one 
serves  one's  self,  are  all  substitutes  for  the  old  midday 


DOMESTIC    SERVICE  63 

home  dinner.  The  shampoo,  hairdressing,  manicure,  and 
"  shoe-shine "  establishments  provide  other  forms  of 
menial  personal  service  so  specialized  and  so  dignified 
as  to  remove  all  question  of  personal  relationship  and  so 
all  question  of  superiority  and  inferiority. 

Along  such  lines  further  development  may  be  ex- 
pected. More  reliance  will  be  placed  upon  standardized 
services  performed  outside  the  home;  more  upon  stand- 
ardized services  performed  within  the  home  by  the  person 
who  comes  to  perform  her  task  and  goes  when  it  is  done ; 
and  for  the  general  helper  in  the  home  the  same  process 
must  take  place. 

As  the  housekeeper  becomes  more  conscious  of  the 
true  nature  of  her  function  and  has  her  attention  more 
and  more  focused  on  the  problem  of  administration,  the 
canons  of  efficiency  will  be  observed,  tasks  of  all  kinds 
will  be  standardized  as  to  products  and  method  of  per- 
formance, instructions  will  become  definite,  devices  in 
the  nature  of  profit-sharing  will  be  invented  to  interest 
the  maid  in  her  own  increasing  efficiency  and  skill. 

When  the  principles  of  management  have  been  worked 
out,  the  tasks  of  the  maid  standardized,  and  the  proper 
grouping  of  tasks  agreed  upon,  the  training  of  both 
mistress  and  maid  can  be  undertaken  with  some  degree 
of  confidence.  As  long  as  it  is  a  matter  of  doing  a  mass 
of  heterogeneous  tasks  as  any  accidental  mistress  may 
want  them  done,  it  is  impossible  to  consider  a  course  of 
vocational  training  leading  to  domestic  service.  If,  how- 
ever, the  problem  should  become  one  of  supplying  trained 
people  to  render  service  in  connection  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  a  well-ordered,  dignified,  agreeable  family  life, 


64  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

lived  among  clean  and  pleasant  surroundings,  where 
good  temper  and  consideration  for  others  prevail,  and 
if  a  reasonable  administrative  capacity  could  be  expected, 
courses  of  study  based  on  principles  of  science  and  art 
could  be  offered  to  attract  girls  of  administrative  capacity 
and  high  character. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  of  keeping  a  servant? 

2.  In  your  experience,  how  does  the  amount  paid  for 
wages  compare  with  that  paid  for  rent? 

3.  Test  the  theory  that  the  cost  of  keeping  a  servant 
is  twice  her  wages  by  making  a  full  estimate  of  every 
item  which  your  servant  costs. 

4.  What  are  the  factors  of  cost  of  laundry  work  done 
outside  the  house?   What  are  its  advantages?    Its  dis- 
advantages ? 

5.  Would  you  urge  the  development  and  improvement 
of  the  laundry  system  as  an  organized  industry,  so  that, 
like  tailoring,  it  should  disappear  from  the  household? 
State  the  reasons  for  your  opinion. 

6.  What  kinds  of  labor  must  be  done  in  the  house? 

7.  How  can  they  be  reduced  in  amount? 

8.  Why  have  the  conditions  of  domestic  service  not 
been  considered  as  seriously  as  other  forms  of  labor? 

9.  What  light  does  the  historical  study  of  domestic 
service  throw  on  its  present  conditions  ? 

10.  What  effect  have  general  economic  conditions  on 
the  conditions  of  domestic  service? 

11.  What  are  the   difficulties   of   the   domestic  em- 
ployer ? 


DOMESTIC    SERVICE  65 

12.  What    are    the    difficulties   on   the    side    of   the 
employee  ? 

13.  What  duties  have  you  the  right  to  require  your 
maid  to  perform  which  necessitate  her  sleeping  in  your 
house  ? 

14.  How  may  carelessness  of  servants  be  controlled 
or  corrected? 

15.  What  tests  should  be  applied  to  any  proposed 
remedy  for  existing  difficulties? 

1 6.  What  remedies  will  meet  these  tests? 

17.  How  far  are  these  remedies  within  reach  of  the 
individual  housekeeper  ? 

1 8.  In  what  ways  and  to  what  extent  may  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  the  family  aid  in  applying  them? 

19.  Make  out  a  series  of  questions  to  be  asked  em- 
ployers concerning  the  possibilities  of  having  a  part  or 
the   whole   of   the  housework   done   by   persons   living 
outside. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Domestic  Service.  Lucy  M.  Salmon.  New  York:  The 
Macmillan  Co. 

Progress  in  the  Household.  Lucy  M.  Salmon.  Boston: 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Industrial  Democracy,  Part  III,  Chapter  II,  "The  Hig- 
gling of  the  Market."  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb. 
New  York:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 

Democracy  and  Social  Ethics,  Chapter  IV.  Jane  Addams. 
New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 

Commentaries.    Blackstone.    Book  I,  Chapter  XVI. 


66  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

Shop  Slavery  and  Emancipation,  Chapter  II,  "Living  in." 
William  Paine.  London :  P.  S.  King. 

Household  Management.  Bertha  M.  Terrill.  Chicago: 
American  School  of  Home  Economics. 

Woman  in  Industry.  Edith  Abbott.  New  York :  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co. 

Report  of  Commission  on  Household  Employment.  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  of  the  United  States. 

A  New  Way  of  Housekeeping.  Clementina  Black.  Lon- 
don :  W.  Collins  Sons  &  Co. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
EDUCATION 

A  FEW  generations  ago  the  education  of  the  child 
was  carried  on  in  the  home,  a  domestic  industry. 
He  learned  to  read  at  his  mother's  knee.  His  body  grew 
strong  and  obedient  to  his  will  by  carrying  wood  and 
water,  feeding  the  chickens,  doing  the  chores  which 
contributed  to  the  family  welfare.  His  social  instinct 
was  developed  by  play  with  brothers  and  sisters  or  the 
neighbors'  children  in  the  barn  or  garret  or  orchard, 
where  ingenuity  and  imagination  had  full  scope.  Tasks 
of  many  kinds  gave  him  manual  facility  and  the  sense  of 
power  which  comes  through  producing.  Sacrifices  and 
hardships  and  economies  showed  him  the  meaning  of 
real  values.  Stern  precepts  of  duty,  obedience,  and 
honesty  were  taught  him  in  the  home.  The  observance 
of  Sunday,  instruction  in  the  Bible,  and  family  worship 
trained  his  religious  nature. 

The  contrasting  conditions  of  today  reveal  one  of  the 
problems  of  the  household.  The  beginning  of  the  day 
finds  the  prime  interest  of  the  family  to  be  getting  the 
children  to  school  on  time.  They  must  be  neatly  dressed, 
books  must  be  gathered  together,  and  possibly  the  con- 
tributions for  a  school  charity,  for  a  class  party,  or  for 
the  school  luncheon  put  in  the  pockets.  The  noon  meal 
must  be  so  timed  as  to  suit  the  children's  convenience. 
The  hours  after  regular  school  exercises  are  all  too  short 
for  the  parties  and  clubs  and  athletics  and  dancing  and 

67 


68  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

music  lessons.  In  brief,  the  school  and  its  organized 
activities  have  taken  from  the  home  most  of  the  child's 
training,  physical,  manual,  social,  mental,  and  moral.  Is 
there  left  a  place  for  the  family  life  to  furnish  training 
in  any  of  these  respects  or  in  allied  lines,  such  as  aesthetic, 
productive,  or  spiritual?  Is  the  home  destined  to  be 
merely  a  shelter  where  physical  needs  are  met,  or  can 
it  still  serve  as  an  agency  for  true  character  building? 
Many  a  mother  is  conscious  of  the  answer  she  wishes  to 
give  and  helpless  in  finding  means  of  bringing  her  hopes 
to  pass.  She  must  ask  what  is  left  of  the  old  which 
can  be  used,  and  what  opportunities  do  the  new  conditions 
offer? 

The  gas  range  or  electric  heater,  the  telephone, 
the  municipal  heating  plant,  the  plumbing,  the  electric 
light,  the  vacuum  cleaner,  are  newcomers  in  the  home 
and  must  be  made  to  serve  at  least  as  well  as  their  prede- 
cessors, even  though  not  in  the  same  way.  Their  proper 
use  and  simple  repairs  may  certainly  be  as  educative  as 
picking  up  chips  or  carrying  pails  of  water.  The  hammer 
and  the  screw-driver  are  useful  tools  of  learning.  Open- 
ing a  box  of  soap  or  tightening  the  dressing-table  handles 
is  an  act  whose  effect  is  greater  than  the  service  rendered. 
Even  with  mechanical  and  almost  automatic  appliances 
at  hand,  there  are  still  household  tasks  to  be  done  regu- 
larly and  carefully,  such  as  making  beds,  dusting,  keep- 
ing rooms  neat  and  tidy,  caring  for  plants,  occasional 
repairing,  besides  the  routine  tasks  of  dining-room  and 
kitchen  which  still  survive.  These  provide,  as  they  always 
have  provided,  for  training  in  power  to  cooperate  and 
to  carry  responsibilities. 


EDUCATION  69 

Another  surviving  subject  for  domestic  training  is 
language.  The  home  may  seem  to  have  a  hopeless  task 
in  its  attempt  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  play- 
ground, the  street,  and  even  of  the  school;  but  it  has 
the  advantage  over  its  competitors  of  the  early  start 
and  the  continuous  opportunity.  Reading,  story-telling, 
familiar  talk  about  the  day's  doings  and  the  family  inter- 
ests are  all  means  for  enriching  the  vocabulary,  showing- 
distinctions  in  meanings  of  words,  developing  careful 
pronunciation  and  enunciation,  training  in  modulation  of 
the  voice,  and,  above  all,  establishing  habits  of  courtesy 
and  respect  in  speech. 

Here  the  family  table  is  an  aid  of  supreme  importance. 
The  occasions  when  the  family  gather  to  "break  bread" 
furnish  easy  opportunities  for  giving  example  and  pre- 
cept in  manners,  in  self-control,  in  regard  and  thought- 
fulness  for  others,  and  in  mutual  sympathy.  The  family 
table,  with  all  its  disadvantages  of  trouble  and  cost,  may 
be  made  worth  many,  many  times  the  price  paid  for  it, 
if  it  is  used  intelligently  and  discreetly,  and  it  should  on 
no  account  be  allowed  to  disappear  as  one  of  the  family's 
educational  resources. 

The  training  given  by  the  school  must  be  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  for  the  child  as  a  member  of  the  group. 
His  training  as  an  individual,  the  development  of  his 
special  powers,  must  be  cared  for  in  the  home,  and  the 
administration  of  the  home  must  provide  for  safeguard- 
ing that  precious  possession,  individuality,  while  care- 
fully and  even  sternly  warding  off  selfish  and  mean 
tendencies.  Playrooms,  workshops,  bedrooms,  and  per- 
sonal belongings  give  the  needed  opportunity  for  wise 


7O  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

direction  of  individuality  and  the  sense  of  responsibility 
which  comes  from  ownership  and  power  of  control, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  may  be  used  as  a  means 
of  fostering  generous  impulses  and  a  helpful  spirit. 

The  widest  possible  participation  in  the  household 
processes  and  the  family  activities  should  be  granted  to 
the  children.  The  kitchen  should  never  be  closed  to  them, 
as  is  unfortunately  sometimes  the  case.  The  apportion- 
ment of  the  family  budget  should  be  made  a  matter  of 
their  concern  as  early  as  possible.  Choice  of  clothing 
and  a  responsibility  for  it  may  be  turned  over  to  them 
at  an  early  age.  Errands  to  the  market,  the  post  office, 
the  library,  or  the  bank  may  be  intrusted  to  them,  and 
the  steps  will  be  willingly  taken  if  the  doing  of  the 
errand  means  the  assumption  of  a  real  responsibility  and 
not  merely  an  enforced  task,  due  to  the  self-indulgence 
of  an  older  person  in  authority  or  an  evident  desire  to 
get  the  child  out  of  the  way. 

The  child  need  not  be  made  to  realize  that  the  home 
actually  exists  for  him  and  that  he  is  its  chief  asset, 
although  these  are  the  facts;  but  he  should  be  made  to 
feel  that  the  part  he  plays,  the  duty  intrusted  to  him, 
and  the  contribution  he  makes  to  the  family  welfare  are 
important,  and  he  must  not  fail  in  them.  He  will  thus 
grow  gradually  into  a  larger  efficiency  and  be  ready  to 
meet  the  issues  of  life  when  he  leaves  the  protecting 
care  of  his  childhood  home. 

Another  kind  of  training  which  remains  in  the  home 
is  that  which  has  to  do  with  the  physical  life  and  habits 
of  the  child.  The  old  mammy  was  quite  wise  in  saying, 
when  she  came  to  take  charge  of  a  two-day-old  child, 


EDUCATION  71 

that  she  "didn't  like  to  begin  so  late;  a  child  got  so 
many  bad  habits  the  first  day."  Regularity  of  habits, 
cleanliness  of  person,  right  standards  of  air  supply, 
reasonable  choice  of  food,  proper  methods  of  feeding, 
and  decency  in  clothing  are  among  the  teachings  which 
the  home  must  give  the  child  in  earliest  infancy  and 
continue  to  give  by  persistent  and  patient  effort  all 
through  the  formative  years.  Hereditary  tendencies 
must  be  observed  and  directed  or  checked,  as  the  case 
may  be,  and  thus  future  ills  be  warded  off  through  right 
living.  Moreover,  it  is  in  the  home,  rather  than  on  the 
street  or  in  the  playground,  that  the  mysteries  of  new 
life  are  to  be  revealed  to  the  child,  and  sex  distinctions 
and  sex  functions  are  to  be  made  the  basis  of  instruction 
in  the  principles  and  practice  of  sex  health.  This  is  one 
of  the  gravest  duties  which  belong  to  parents,  and  it  is 
lamentable  that  so  many  are  incompetent  to  fulfill  it. 

Within  the  home  must  come  the  training  which  gives 
the  individual  consciousness  of  belonging  to  a  group. 
He  recognizes  dimly  that  there  his  physical  needs  are 
satisfied,  because  he  does  not  suffer.  He  is  sheltered, 
clothed,  and  fed.  He  is  given  what  he  has  a  right  to 
have.  He  is  surrounded  with  love  and  sympathy,  and 
feels  a  sense  of  protection.  He  must  learn  to  give  in 
return.  He  must  help  when  there  is  sickness  or  suffering, 
join  with  others  in  offering  courtesy  to  "the  stranger 
within  the  gates,"  and  make  from  time  to  time  little 
sacrifices  called  for  by  the  good  of  the  whole.  In  train- 
ing him  thus,  the  home  will  so  educate  him  that,  when 
he  becomes  a  member  of  a  larger  group,  he  will  not 
merely  clamor  for  his  "rights,"  but  will  render  those 


72  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

services  which  make  for  the  large  social  consciousness 
that  is  to  prevail  if  increasing  human  welfare  is  to  mark 
the  advancing  years. 

Such  are  some  of  the  educational  problems  of  today 
which  the  home  must  face  and  solve,  and  in  so  far  as  it 
shirks  or  ignores  them  it  fails  to  justify  itself  as  an 
institution  to  be  perpetuated. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  kinds  of  training  of  the  young  are  going 
out  of  the  home? 

2.  What   arrangements   can   be   made   so   that   the 
children  will  have  playrooms,  workshops,  or  laboratories 
where  they  may  develop  individual  gifts? 

3.  How  may  respect  for  the  children's  rights  to  their 
personal  property  be  shown? 

4.  In  what  ways  may  they  be  trained  to  care  for 
their  personal  property? 

5.  How  may  they  be  taught  to  be  generous  with 
what  belongs  to  them  ? 

6.  What  opportunities   may  be   given  them  to   co- 
operate in  choosing  their  clothing  and  even  to  have  full 
responsibility  ? 

7.  How  may  they  be  trained  in  the  handling  and  use 
of  money  ? 

8.  What  methods  may  be  used  to  teach  wise  and 
proper  saving? 

9.  What  means  may  be  used  to  train  them  in  voice 
and  speech? 

10.  To  what  extent  may  they  be  allowed  to  partici- 
pate in  the  family  conversation  without  dominating  it? 


EDUCATION  -  73 

11.  What  household  duties  may  be  assigned  to  them 
for  which  they  may  be  held  responsible  ? 

12.  How  may  habits  of  personal  cleanliness  be  en- 
forced ? 

13.  How  may  sex  functions  be  best  explained? 

14.  To  what  extent  may  manufacturing  processes  be 
retained  in  the  home  for  educational  purposes? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Some    Thoughts    Concerning    Education.    John    Locke. 

New  York :  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Leonard  and  Gertrude.    Pestalozzi.    Boston :  D.  C.  Heath 

&Co. 
Cyclopedia    of    Education.    Paul    Monroe.    Article    on 

Family  Education.    New  York:   The  Macmillan  Co. 
The  Coming  Generation.    W.  B.  Forbush.    New  York: 

D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
Euthenics.    Ellen    H.    Richards.    Boston:    Whitcomb   & 

Barrows. 
Home,  School,  and  Vacation.    Annie  W.  Allen.    Boston: 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
The  Town  Child.    R.  A.  Bray.    London. 
Democracy  and  Social  Ethics,  Chapter  VI.  Jane  Addams. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Progress  in  the  Household,  Chapter  II.    L.  M.  Salmon. 

Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Democracy  beginning  at  Home.    H.  F.  Cope.    Religious 

Education,  February,  1919. 
Teaching  in  the  Home.    A.  A.  Berle.    New  York  :  Moffat, 

Yard  &  Co. 


CHAPTER    IX 
THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

'  I  ^HE  physical  operations  and  material  needs  of  the 
-*-  household  are,  of  course,  of  fundamental  impor- 
tance. They  do  not,  however,  by  any  means  constitute 
all  the  interests  of  the  household,  as  many  persons 
unfortunately  appear  to  believe;  they  are  merely  the 
basis  for  the  expression  of  those  qualities  which  distin- 
guish human  beings  from  other  forms  of  life.  Food, 
warmth,  and  protection  must  be  furnished,  but  not 
as  ends  in  themselves.  Every  principle  studied,  every 
reform  advocated,  and  every  process  adopted  should  be 
considered  in  the  light  of  its  role  as  a  part  of  the  founda- 
tion for  the  highest  and  best  expression  of  life,  whether 
it  be  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  or  spiritual.  The  house 
which  is  perfectly  administered  on  its  physical  side  has  a 
small  function  in  the  economy  of  life  unless  it  contrib- 
utes to  the  upbuilding  of  men  with  noble  minds  and  souls. 
As  Emerson  said :  "A  house  should  bear  witness  in  all  its 
economy  that  human  culture  is  the  end  to  which  it  is 
built  and  garnished.  It  is  not  for  festivity.  It  is  not  for 
sleep.  But  the  pine  and  the  oak  shall  gladly  descend  from 
the  mountains  to  uphold  the  roof  of  men  as  faithful  and 
necessary  as  themselves,  to  be  the  shelter  always  open 
to  the  good  and  true,  a  hall  which  shines  with  sincerity, 
brows  ever  tranquil,  and  a  demeanor  impossible  to  dis- 
concert." 

In  the  preceding  pages  the  attempt  has  been  made  to 
74 


ACTIVITIES    OF   THE    HOUSEHOLD  75 

keep  this  point  of  view  steadily  before  the  reader.  The 
activities  of  the  household  which  remain  to  be  considered 
are  often  said,  although  perhaps  in  the  last  analyses  not 
quite  truthfully,  to  represent  "the  higher  life."  Educa- 
tion, hospitality,  civic  cooperation,  aesthetic  enjoyment, 
and  moral  and  spiritual  growth  are  all  forms  of  activity 
which  must  be  demanded  as  the  fruitage  of  those  domes- 
tic efforts  which  are  so  exacting  and  costly  as  often  to 
blind  the  housekeeper  to  the  fact  that  they  are  not  her 
final  goal. 

The  possibilities  and  obligations  of  the  household 
in  these  different  directions  are  as  varied  as  the  families 
to  which  they  belong.  It  is,  therefore,  impossible  to  for- 
mulate with  precision  any  details  of  procedure.  Certain 
general  suggestions  may,  however,  prove  helpful.  For 
example,  if  the  training  of  children  is  a  paramount  duty, 
then  the  retention  of  domestic  industries,  as  far  as  they 
prove  educational,  is  not  only  justifiable  but  necessary. 
Moreover,  if  the  carrying  on  of  such  industries  as  cook- 
ing and  sewing  contributes  to  the  sense  of  pleasure  or 
comfort,  or  develops  a  spirit  of  cooperation  or  unity  in 
the  household,  they  may  be  retained,  even  if  they  would 
not  justify  themselves  on  grounds  of  economy  alone. 
Whether  the  result  is  worth  the  cost  must  be  determined 
by  intelligent  and  frank  discussion. 

Hospitality  is  a  form  of  household  activity  which 
represents  the  satisfaction  of  a  very  real  human  craving. 
Nevertheless,  the  forms  which  it  often  assumes  are  such 
as  to  defeat  entirely  its  purposes.  Undue  cost,  social 
pretense,  anxiety,  and  nerve  strain  crowd  out  genuine 
friendliness,  enjoyment,  and  pleasure  on  the  part  of 


76  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

hostess  and  guest  alike.  Methods  of  attaining  the  real 
end  in  entertaining  friends  should  very  properly  be  made 
a  matter  for  the  family  council,  and  devices  for  using 
modern  social  resources  in  independent  and  pleasurable 
ways  should  be  adopted.  The  current  forms  of  hospital- 
ity into  which  children  are  forced  seem  to  need  particular 
consideration  and  readjustment,  while  forms  of  entertain- 
ment, involving  less  cost  and  carried  on  with  less  for- 
mality, constitute  a  need  which  many  adults  feel  strongly. 
The  household  is  surely  not  performing  its  functions 
adequately  until  it  solves  these  problems. 

The  study  of  the  family  accounts  may  well  be  given 
a  larger  place  among  the  activities  of  the  household. 
Such  discussion  not  only  has  real  educational  value,  but, 
for  the  time  which  it  may  consume,  will  contribute  more 
to  the  development  of  a  loyal  family  spirit  than  any  other 
form  of  cooperation.  Every  member  of  the  family,  even 
to  the  youngest,  should  sit  in  council,  learn  what  are  the 
resources  of  the  group  as  a  whole,  and  determine  by  joint 
action,  guided,  of  course,  by  the  more  responsible  and 
wise  members,  just  what  amounts  shall  be  assigned  for 
group  expenditures  and  what  for  individual  needs  and 
indulgences.  The  ethical  and  social  principles  involved 
are  far-reaching  and  the  training  in  so-called  business 
habits  will  be  invaluable  if  the  discussions  are  conducted 
with  frankness  and  generosity  and  the  decisions  carried 
out  with  honesty  and  devotion. 

The  proper  development  of  the  aesthetic  faculties  and 
the  gratification  of  the  sense  of  beauty  is  a  problem  which 
is  taking  on  new  forms,  as  society  is  breaking  away  from 
the  austere  influences  of  earlier  generations  and  as  the 


ACTIVITIES    OF    THE    HOUSEHOLD  77 

means  of  gratifying  the  appeal  for  beauty  in  form  and 
color  are  year  by  year  brought  within  the  reach  of  a 
larger  number  of  people.  The  expression  of  a  sense  of 
beauty  through  wall  coverings,  furniture,  pictures,  table- 
ware, ornaments,  and  other  household  and  personal  equip- 
ment affords  an  interesting  and  valuable  family  activity. 

A  great  change  has  come  within  recent  times  in  the 
formal  religious  activities  of  the  household.  Family 
prayers,  Bible  study,  churchgoing,  and  the  observance  of 
Sunday  as  a  day  of  prayer  and  devotion  have  given  place 
to  a  new  order.  The  modern  problem  is  how  to  save 
from  the  wreckage  that  which  was  spiritually  enriching 
and  uplifting,  while  gladly  breaking  free  from  deadly 
formalism.  Many  wise  leaders  are  giving  help  in  this 
direction,  especially  through  such  agencies  as  the  Reli- 
gious Education  Association,  and  every  one  interested 
in  family  welfare  should  be  eager  to  make  use  of  their 
suggestions. 

But  there  are  also  activities  without  the  walls  of  the 
home  which  appear  in  a  new  phase  during  these  later 
years  and  whose  significance  must  not  be  ignored,  espe- 
cially since  the  right  use  of  the  opportunities  they  offer 
presents  an  interesting  problem.  One  form  which  these 
activities  take  is  sometimes  known  under  the  term,  "com- 
munal pleasures."  The  old-time  husking-bee,  spelling- 
match,  sewing-circle,  and  singing-school  have  given  way 
to  organized  methods  of  furnishing  entertainment,  infor- 
mation, or  recreation,  often  conducted  at  public  expense. 
The  theatre,  the  library,  the  park,  collections  of  art, 
concerts,  and  museums  devoted  to  different  fields  of 
knowledge  are  increasing  in  number,  attractiveness,  and 


78  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

availability.  The  fact  that  they  lure  from  the  home 
fireside  and  tend  to  neglect  of  duties  is  sometimes  de- 
plored. The  more  intelligent  attitude  of  mind  is  that 
which  recognizes  in  them  agencies  for  genuine  family 
progress  and  thus  uses  them.  Americans  have  in  this 
respect  much  to  learn  from  some  foreign  nations,  notably 
Germany,  where  it  is  much  more  usual  than  in  this 
country  to  see  a  whole  family  group  find  pleasure  or 
profit  in  making  use  together  of  some  of  these  com- 
munal agencies.  Visits  may  be  made  together  in  the  late 
afternoon,  Saturdays,  holidays,  and  even  Sundays.  Not 
merely  the  chance  for  increased  information  and  culture, 
but  the  delight  of  sharing  enjoyment,  should  make  of 
such  hours  both  happy  memories  and  vital  forces  in  group 
and  individual  growth.  The  dramatic  sense  of  a  younger 
member  of  the  family,  the  taste  in  art  or  music  of  another, 
may  thus  be  fostered  and  at  the  same  time  dignified  with 
a  kind  of  leadership,  if  the  other  members  of  the  family 
are  open-minded  and  sympathetic  in  their  response.  One 
most  desirable  reaction  will  inevitably  be  the  enrichment 
of  the  conversation  of  the  group  through  a  common 
interest  in  more  worthy  subjects  than  neighborhood 
gossip,  current  slang,  or  personal  grievances  and  whims. 
Another  interest  in  which  the  family  as  a  whole  may 
well  be  concerned,  and  which  will  take  them  beyond  the 
limits  of  their  house  walls,  is  the  organized  philanthropic 
work  of  the  neighborhood.  The  group,  including  even 
the  youngest,  should  recognize  this  responsibility  and 
opportunity,  and  join  in  carrying  some  of  the  burdens 
and  studying  some  of  the  problems  which  our  present 
order  of  society  presents  with  great  insistence  to  all 


ACTIVITIES    OF    THE    HOUSEHOLD  79 

thoughtful  persons.  This  is  not  only  a  public  duty,  but 
one  which  must  be  met  if  the  highest  welfare  of  the 
group  in  its  inmost  needs  is  to  be  attained.  The  method 
of  working  it  out  becomes  a  problem  of  no  mean  order 
in  the  modern  household. 

Similarly  every  form  of  social  betterment,  such  as 
organized  educational,  religious,  and  civic  work,  affords 
opportunity  for  the  further  training  and  expression  of 
those  powers  which  the  modern  household  should  count 
as  among  its  choicest  assets,  if  not,  indeed,  as  the  very 
justification  for  its  existence  as  an  institution. 

The  suggestions  thus  briefly  outlined  cannot  be  further 
elaborated  in  this  place.  The  conditions  of  the  problem 
are  too  diversified  to  make  its  solution  possible  by  rule  of 
thumb.  Indeed,  the  danger  in  carrying  them  out  at  all 
lies  in  the  direction  of  making  these  forms  of  family  ac- 
tivity too  mechanical.  They  are  in  reality  an  "outward 
and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace,"  the 
manifestation  of  those  things  of  the  spirit  for  which 
the  physical  processes  of  the  household  should  serve 
as  the  foundation  and  starting  point. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  reasons  can  you  give  for  not  distinguish- 
ing any  special  human  interests  as  belonging  to   "the 
higher  life"? 

2.  What  needs  come  with  a  larger  income? 

3.  What  class  of  people  find  the  most  difficulty  in 
meeting  their  needs,  and  why? 

4.  How    is   the   satisfaction   of    such   needs   to   be 
determined  ? 


8O  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

5.  What   features  of  the  older  home  life  must  be 
retained  in  order  to  secure  its  permanence  and  vitality? 

6.  What    new     features    does    modern    life    make 
necessary  ? 

7.  Describe  agencies  which  can  be  used  in  the  modern 
well-to-do  home  for  the  development  of  efficiency,  char- 
acter, and  sense  of  responsibility  in  children.    Which  of 
them  are  not  to  be  had  in  hotels  and  boarding  houses? 

8.  Specify  some  ways  by  which  regard  both  for  the 
individuality  and  for  the  common  interests  of  the  family 
can  be  served  in  the  organization  and  administration  of 
the  household. 

9.  What   are   some    of   the    "communal    pleasures" 
which  the  people  of  your  town  enjoy? 

10.  What  influences  and  resources  can  be  used  in  the 
home  to   check  the   love  of   crowd  and   of   communal 
pleasures  ? 

11.  Why  is  household  life  more  complex  now,  with 
all  labor-saving  appliances,  than  it  formerly  was? 

12.  What  arrangements  should  be  made  in  money 
matters  between  the  different  members  of  the  family? 

13.  To  what  extent  does  genuine  hospitality  require 
a  modification  of  the  customs  of  the  family? 

14.  When  the  purchase  of  a  ready-made  article,  such 
as  a  piece  of  underclothing,  involves  more  money  outlay 
and  less  expenditure  of  time  than  making  it  at  home 
would  demand,  what  plans  have  you  for  a  satisfactory 
and  profitable  use  of  the  leisure  secured? 

15.  Discuss  the  outside  interests  which  do  or  should 
have  the  active  interest  of  the  mother. 


ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD  8l 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Democracy    and    Social    Ethics,    Chapters    II    and    III. 

Jane  Addams.    New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Society.    Small  and  Vincent. 

New  York:  American  Book  Co. 
Ethics,  Chapter  XXVI.    Dewey  and  Tufts.    New  York : 

Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
Household    Economics,    Chapters    I    and    XII.     Helen 

Campbell.    New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class.    T.  B.  Veblen.    New  York: 

The  Macmillan  Co. 
The   Education   of   Women.    Marion   Talbot.    Chicago: 

University  of  Chicago  Press. 
Home  Problems  from  a  New  Standpoint.    C.  L.  Hunt. 

Boston :  Whitcomb  &  Barrows. 

The  Home.    C.  P.  Oilman.    New  York:   Charlton  Co. 
Euthenics.     E.     H.    Richards.     Boston:    Whitcomb    & 

Barrows. 
The   Cost  of  Living,   Chapter  VIII.    E.   H.   Richards. 

New  York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  HOUSEHOLD  AND  THE  COMMUNITY 

FREQUENT  mention  has  been  made  in  the  preceding 
pages  of  activities  within  the  household  with  which 
the  well-being  of  the  community  is  intertwined.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  that,  from  such  humble  and  simple  tasks 
as  supplying  regular  food  and  requiring  regular  sleep 
for  the  little  children,  a  reduction  in  the  volume  of  delin- 
quency, truancy,  and  subnormality  might  be  expected. 
Similarly,  attention  has  been  called  to  the  importance  of 
care  in  the  selection  of  articles  of  food  and  clothing,  not 
only  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  eat  and  wear, 
but  of  those  who  make  and  sell.  The  household  is,  in 
fact,  tied  to  the  community  by  two  sets  of  bonds.  There 
are,  in  the  first  place,  those  tasks  to  be  performed  by  the 
housekeeper  on  which  the  well-being  of  the  community 
depends.  With  proper  care  of  waste-matter  in  her  house 
and  the  maintenance  of  a  reasonable  standard  of  cleanli- 
ness, the  entire  community  is  greatly  concerned.  Upon 
her  living  up  to  a  reasonable  measure  of  intelligence  in 
the  treatment  of  her  children,  the  entire  well-being  of  the 
next  generation  may  be  said  to  depend.  So  closely  identi- 
fied, in  fact,  is  the  public  interest  with  the  adequate 
performance  of  such  daily  tasks  as  these,  that  housekeep- 
ing may  now  be  classified  among  the  public  functions. 

But  not  only  is  the  community  dependent  upon  the 
housekeeper;  she  is,  in  turn,  dependent  upon  the  com- 
munity for  help  in  the  performance  of  her  household 

82 


AND    THE    COMMUNITY  83 

duties.  To  be  sure,  much  can  be  accomplished  and  must 
be  sought  through  voluntary  association.  A  careful 
housekeeper  can  keep  her  own  house  sweet  and  clean, 
and  can  maintain  a  nice  standard  of  care  in  her  yard; 
but  the  extent  to  which  her  floors  will  be  tracked  with 
muddy  feet  or  her  curtains  soiled  by  dusty  wind  will 
depend  in  large  measure  on  the  standard  maintained  in 
the  care  of  the  street  in  front  and  the  alley  behind  both 
her  own  and  her  neighbors'  homes.  The  organization  of 
a  neighborhood  improvement  association  may  be,  then, 
the  first  and  the  most  practicable  step  towards  securing 
a  community  standard  of  cleanliness  like  her  own. 

In  the  same  way,  in  order  to  secure  conditions  which 
she  can  regard  as  endurable  and  suitable  for  the  prepa- 
ration of  such  of  her  food  as  under  modern  city  condi- 
tions should  not  be  prepared  at  home,  she  may  accomplish 
something  by  individual  care.  She  can  look  at  her 
butcher's  refrigerator,  go  through  her  grocer's  store- 
room, visit  her  milkman's  dairy,  and  inspect  his  wagon. 
Moreover,  she  can  organize  a  Consumers'  League,  whose 
members  will  agree  with  her  to  ask  information  before 
they  buy  and  to  maintain  representatives  to  inspect  for 
them  all  and  to  voice  their  demands.  Obviously,  how- 
ever, the  local  improvement  association  is  but  a  step 
towards  securing  at  least  a  reasonable  standard  of  street 
and  alley  care  for  the  whole  city.  To  secure  this  it  is 
necessary  to  exercise  control  over  the  public  works  de- 
partment and  to  influence  the  determination  of  the  pro- 
portion of  the  city's  resources  which  should  be  spent  on 
this  aspect  of  city  comfort  and  well-being. 

Moreover,  in  connection  with  many  processes  neces- 


84  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

sary  to  the  preparation  of  food,  the  private  group  is  as 
helpless  as  the  private  individual.  Whether  the  beef  shall 
be  adequately  inspected  before  slaughtering,  whether  the 
meat  products  shall  be  carefully  handled,  whether  the  em- 
ployees in  distant  mills  and  workshops  are  sweated  or 
exploited  or  exposed  to  needless  accident  and  to  prevent- 
able disease,  neither  the  individual  nor  the  woman's  club 
can  effectively  determine.  Nothing  short  of  govern- 
mental power,  expressed  in  legislation  and  executed 
through  governmental  agents,  will  meet  the  exigencies 
of  the  situation.  Spending  for  food  and  clothing  and 
other  means  of  satisfaction  involves,  then,  a  partnership 
with  the  whole  industrial  machinery  by  which  they  are 
supplied,  and  a  partnership  with  the  governmental  organ- 
ization by  which  the  industrial  machine  must  be  con- 
trolled. "The  woman's  place  is  in  the  home,"  is  an  old 
saying  to  which  all  subscribe,  perhaps  with  varying 
appreciation  of  its  significance.  To  some  it  means  that 
women  must  limit  themselves  to  the  performance  of 
duties  arising  within  the  walls  where  the  members  of  the 
family  sleep,  whence  they  go  to  their  daily  interests.  To 
others  it  means  that  wherever  there  is  found  an  interest 
vital  to  the  well-being  of  the  group  for  which  she  is 
responsible,  the  housekeeper  will  feel  entitled  to  claim 
admittance. 

To  those  who  take  this  larger  view,  it  becomes  in- 
evitable that  the  housekeeper  shall  be  present  either 
in  her  own  person  or  in  the  person  of  her  agent  where 
the  food  of  her  family  is  prepared.  She  must  inspect 
the  farm  from  which  her  milk  is  brought  to  the  city,  the 
dairy  in  which  it  is  prepared,  the  trains  on  which  it  is 


AND   THE    COMMUNITY  85 

transported,  the  centres  from  which  it  is  distributed. 
She  must  take  part  in  the  decision  as  to  the  standard 
required,  the  method  of  enforcement  devised,  the  rate 
at  which  that  standard  shall  be  raised. 

She  must  properly  separate  the  waste  matter  in  her 
own  home  and  dispose  of  it  in  accordance  with  her  own 
standards  of  cleanliness  and  with  the  orders  from  the 
City  Health  or  Public  Works  Department.  She  must 
also  cooperate  in  securing  adequate  provision  for  the 
disposition  of  that  waste  which  must  be  collectively 
handled. 

She  will  insist  on  following  her  children  into  the 
school,  on  to  the  playgrounds,  into  all  places  of  amuse- 
ment. She  will  claim  the  right  to  be  present  when  the 
"guardians  of  the  law  and  of  the  children  who  go  about 
in  public  places"  are  selected  and  instructed,  because 
they  are  her  servants  doing  her  work.  With  amazing 
complacency  women  have  let  their  homes  outgrow  them. 
They  have  allowed  their  children  to  go  unattended  and 
unguarded  and  so  substantially  orphaned  into  many 
places  and  through  many  experiences.  The  girl  who  is 
motherless,  not  because  her  mother  is  dead,  but  because 
she  has  let  her  home  outgrow  her,  is  unguarded  in  the 
dance  hall  or  place  of  cheap  amusement.  The  boy, 
orphaned  similarly,  finds  his  way  to  the  Juvenile  Court. 
The  streets  which  she  has  neglected  are  lined  with 
ugly  and  deceptive  billboards.  Into  the  city  which 
she  has  failed  to  claim  come  strangers  treated  as  she 
would  not  let  a  dog  be  treated  in  her  own  back  yard. 
She  talks  much  of  the  difficulties  attending  her  efforts 
to  secure  a  maid  who  shall  open  the  door  and  take  in 


86  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

the  milk;  but  she  has  paid  no  attention  to  the  selection 
of  the  man  at  the  head  of  the  Health  or  Public  Works 
or  Pure  Food  Department,  whose  duties  are  of  as 
immediate  and  urgent  concern  to  her.  Perhaps  she  de- 
serves to  be  treated  as  the  servant  in  the  parable  was 
treated,  and  be  made  to  deliver  up  to  another  the  talent 
intrusted  to  her  for  wise  investment.  But  to  whom 
would  the  better  handling  of  the  talent  be  intrusted? 
No  such  solution  of  this  difficulty  is  possible,  for  there 
is  at  hand  no  servant  who  has  been  faithful  with  the 
ten  talents.  Her  sins  have  been  those  of  omission,  and 
have  been  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  her  eyes  have 
been  hidden  so  that  she  has  not  seen  the  way  in  which 
the  boundaries  of  the  home  which  she  thought  her  pres- 
ence filled  had  shifted,  leaving  her  stranded  in  the  centre 
of  a  wide  and  ever-widening  reach  of  human  problems 
and  human  needs.  When  she  sees  how  her  presence  is 
needed  in  all  the  places  which  have  been  named,  she 
"will  arise  and  go"  to  the  polling  booth,  to  the  city 
hall,  to  the  factory,  to  the  school  that  the  child's  mental 
training  may  not  be  divorced  from  his  physical  and 
social  needs,  to  the  place  where  the  children  play  so  that 
safety  and  therefore  decency  may  characterize  the  rela- 
tionship of  boys  and  girls,  to  all  the  places  where  those 
who  prepare  and  serve  her  food  and  make  her  clothing 
work  and  live. 

She  will  appropriate  the  ballot  as  a  domestic  neces- 
sity, just  as  she  appropriates  the  mechanical  devices 
which  lighten  her  work  and  render  her  physical  efforts 
more  effective.  She  will  utilize  governmental  organiza- 
tion as  she  will  resort  to  private  organization,  according 


AND    THE    COMMUNITY  87 

as  one  or  the  other  serves  the  interests  intrusted  to  her 
care.  She  will  scan  the  records  of  public  servants 
because  of  the  domestic  interests  involved  in  their  selec- 
tion, and  gradually  she  will  apply  to  the  selection  of 
her  private  helpers  professional  rather  than  personal 
standards  which  will  dignify  their  labor  and  her  relation- 
ship to  them.  Her  position  will  then  become  one  of 
increasing  dignity  and  interest,  and  from  her  trained 
intelligence  will  come  many  suggestions  for  better  col- 
lective action  in  behalf  of  the  children,  the  aged,  the 
sick,  for  whose  care  the  community  must  be  responsible. 
All  of  this  will  grow  out  of  her  realization  that  a  woman's 
presence  is  demanded  throughout  the  range  of  interests 
which  constitute  her  home. 

The  question  arises  as  to  the  best  method  of  prepara- 
tion for  such  a  profession  as  has  been  described.  Obvi- 
ously many  are  being  allowed  to  undertake  these  respon- 
sibilities without  adequate  equipment,  indeed  without  any 
equipment  at  all.  Clearly  no  training  which  enlarges  the 
sympathy  and  widens  the  sense  of  kinship  with  all  man- 
kind will  be  amiss.  All  the  helps  to  be  got  from  litera- 
ture and  history  in  making  the  past  live,  in  making  the 
ways  of  others  interesting  for  her  own  group,  will  be 
useful,  if  the  home  is  to  compete  in  attractiveness  with 
the  excitement  of  the  moving  picture  show  or  the  allure- 
ments of  the  street.  Bacteriology,  chemistry,  and  physics 
should  be  her  handmaids  in  the  performance  of  house- 
hold tasks.  Economics  and  the  theory  of  government 
she  should  command.  With  the  technique  of  simple 
cooking,  of  simple  sewing,  of  simple  cleansing  both  of 
house  and  of  garments  she  should  be  familiar.  The 


88  THE    MODERN    HOUSEHOLD 

theory  of  modern  advertising  and  of  modern  methods  of 
selling  should  be  made  known  to  her,  so  that  she  may 
not  be  victimized  by  them.  Perhaps  the  most  important 
preparation  of  all  is  the  attainment  of  a  fine  democracy 
of  spirit  which  dignifies  work,  judges  by  objective  stand- 
ards, and  leaves  to  others,  children,  maid-servants,  any 
who  cooperate  either  in  public  or  private  undertakings, 
a  large  measure  of  freedom  from  interference  and  petty 
criticism,  creating  an  atmosphere  of  kindness  and  of 
genuine  equality.  In  such  an  atmosphere  children  will 
thrive,  maid-servants  will  respond,  tasks  will  be  smoothly 
done,  and  life  will  move  serene  in  the  sphere  over  which 
she  has  undertaken  to  rule  and  in  which  she  has  been 
glad  to  serve. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  In  what  respects,  if  any,  do  you  think  that  the 
administration   of  the  household   offers   "a  career"  to 
women  ? 

2.  What  kinds  of  training  and  knowledge  do  you 
think  the  head  of  a  household  needs? 

3.  On  what  public  agencies  is  your  household  now 
dependent  for  its  well-being? 

4.  With   what  voluntary  associations   can  you   ally 
yourself  to  secure  better  housekeeping  for  your  neigh- 
borhood ? 

5.  Summarize  the  different  ways  by  which  a  house- 
keeper can  combine  her  household  duties  with  the  edu- 
cation of  her  children.    How  can  she  make  use  of  one 
to  accomplish  the  other? 

6.  Can  you  justify   from  your  own  experience  the 


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AND    THE    COMMUNITY  89 

statement  that  it  is  possible  to  be  victimized  by  advertise- 
ments ? 

7.  What  do  you  think  are  the  most  pressing  reforms 
needed  today  in  the  administration  of  the  household? 

8.  What  agencies  can  be  devised  and  used  to  bring 
them  about? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Newer   Ideals   of   Peace,   Chapter   VII.    Jane   Addams. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets.    Jane  Addams. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Democracy  and  Social  Ethics,  Chapter  III.  Jane  Addams. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
A  New  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil.    Jane  Addams. 

New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
Some     Ethical     Gains     through     Legislation.     Florence 

Kelley.     New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co. 
The  Family.    Helen  Bosanquet.    New  York:  The  Mac- 
millan Co. 
Ethics,    Chapter    XXVI.    John    Dewey    and    James    H. 

Tufts.    New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
The   Education   of   Women.    Marion   Talbot.    Chicago: 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press. 
Civics   and    Health.    William    H.   Allen.    Boston:    Ginn 

&  Co. 
Euthenics.    Ellen    H.    Richards.    Boston:    Whitcomb    & 

Barrows. 
The  City  the  Hope  of  Democracy.    Frederick  C.  Howe. 

New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


INDEX 


Accounts,  household,    12,   51,   76 
Advantages     of     domestic     em- 
ployee, 60 
Advertising,  88 
^Esthetic    faculties,    development 

of,    76,    77 

After-Care    Committee,   42 
Amusement,  places  of,   77,   85 
Appliances,    mechanical,    49 
Archaic  methods,  3 
Atmosphere  of  home,  88 

Ballot,   a  domestic  necessity,   86 

Belated   habits,   3 

Business,  relation  of  house- 
keeper to,  6 

Buying  clothing,  difficulties  in, 
38,  41,  42 

Buying  clothing,  stimulation  of, 
38 

Buying,   influences  of,   5 

Buying,  preparation  for,  6 

Care  of  streets,  83 
Causes  of  disease,  24 
Chapin,   39 

Charity     Organization     Move- 
ment, 2 

Chicago  Board  of  Education,  6 
Child,    chief   asset   of   home,    70 
Child  Labor  Committee,  42 
Choice  of  standard  of  living,  12 
Cleanliness  of  clothing,  40 
Clothing,  37  et  seq. 

cleanliness  of,  40 

difficulties    in   buying,    38,    41, 
42 

durability  of,   40 

home    making    of,    42 

manufacture  of,  41,  42 

purposes  of,  37,  38 

sanitary   aspects   of,    40,   41 

selection  of,  37,  43 

standards  in,   39 

styles  in,   38,   39 

sweatshop,  41,  42 


Coffee,  34 

Coloring  matter  in  foods,  33 

Common  interests  of  maker  and 

buyer,  6 

Communal  pleasures,  77,  78 
Community  dependent  on  house- 
keeper, 82 
housekeeper    dependent    on, 

82,  83 

interference,  2 
Complexity  in  feeding,  32 
Conditions    of    household    labor, 

50 
Considerations      in      choice      of 

home,  25 

Consumers'  League,  42,  83 
Consumption,    wasteful    methods 

in,   1 1 

Control  of  food,  83,  84,  85 
of  home,   86 

of  householder  by  state,  21 
of  public  servants,  87 
of  public   works,   83,   86 
Cooperation,  training  in,  68 
Criticisms  of  family,  i 

Danger  of  overeating,  32 
Decline  of  preserve-making,  31 
Dependency,  2 

Development    of   aesthetic    facul- 
ties, 76,  77 

of  individuality,  69 
Dietetic  considerations,  30 

standards,   30 

Disappearance   of  household   in- 
dustries,  i,  4,  5,   1 6,  29 
Disease,  causes  of,  24 

resistance  to,  24 
Disposal  of  waste,  85 
Distribution  of  resources,  13,  16 
Domestic   appliances    for   educa- 
tion, 67,  68 

efforts,  fruitage  of,  75 

employee,  advantages  of,  60 
working  conditions  of,  60 

ideals,   3 


90 


INDEX 


Domestic    industries,    disappear- 
ance of,   i,  4,  5,   16,  29 
retention  of,   6,   75 
necessity,  ballot  a,  86 
problem,   seriousness  of,    3 
service,   56   et  seq. 

legal  peculiarities   in,    58, 

59 

servants,  training  of,  63,  64 
Durability  of  clothing,  40 

Economic     status     of     family 
groups,  2 

Education,  67  et  seq. 
a   domestic  industry,   67 
domestic  appliances   for,   68 
for  home-making,   20 

Efficiency,  standards  of,  2 

Elaboration    of   household   proc- 
esses, 48,  49 

Elimination  of  service,  56,  57 

Emergencies,  household,  50 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  74 

Enactments,  sanitary,  24 

Engel,   Ernest,   14 

Engel's  Laws,  14 

Environment,     effect     of     on 
health,  24 

Ethical  training,  71 

Evidences  of  dissatisfaction,    i 

Expenditures,     experiments     in 
household,  15 

Factory  system,  3 

Failure  of  institutional  life,  7 

Family  accounts,  76 

as  a  social  organization,  i 

criticisms  of,    i 

groups,   economic  status   of,   2 

life  among  the  poor,   i 
importance  of  sound,   i 

rehabilitation,  2 
Feeding,  complexity  in,  32 

new   questions   in,    29,    30 

self-indulgence   in,    32 

principles  of,   30 
Food,  control  of,  83,  84,  85 

handling  of,   34 

laws,  33 

preservatives,  33 

substitutes,  33 


Food,  wholesale  buying  of,   34 
Foods,  coloring  matter  in,  33 

in  season,  31 

nutritive  value  of,  31 

prepared,  32,  33,  35 

predigested,    34 
Forethought,  use  of,  50 
Fruitage  of  domestic  efforts,  75 
Fruits,  use  of,  31 
Function  of  house,  74 

of  making,   6 

of  spending,  6 

Glucose,  33 

Governmental    organization,    use 

of,  86 
Group  training,  81 

Habits,  belated,  3 

Handling  of  food,  34 

Health,    effect    of    environment 

on,  24 

Hereditary  tendencies,  71 
Higher  life,  75 
Home,  atmosphere  of,  88 
centre   of  production,    n 
child,    chief   asset   of,    70 
considerations  in  choice  of, 

25 

control  of,  86 
education,  67,  68 
woman's    sphere,    84,    88 
making,   20 

education   for,   20 
of  clothing,  42 
Homes,  women  outgrown  by,  85, 

86 

House,  function  of,  74 
Householder,  control  of,  by  state, 

21 

legal  relations  of,  22 
obligations   of,   to   community, 

23 

Housekeeper,    community    de- 
pendent on,  82 
dependent   on   community,   82, 

83 

position   of,    17,   40 
relation  of,   to  business,   6 
responsibility  of,  8 


INDEX 


Housekeeping,  20 

a   public   function,   82 

training  for,  87 
Household  accounts,  12,  51,  76 

emergencies,   50 

life,  importance  of,  6 

manager,  qualities  of,   48 

object  of,   47 

processes,  elaboration  of,  48, 
49 

tasks,  56 

welfare  of,  49 
Housework,    standardization    of, 

60,  61,  62,  63 
Housing,  20 

sanitary  considerations  in,   24 
Hospitality,  75,  76 

Ideals,  domestic,  3 

twentieth    century,    3 
Importance   of   family  life,    i,  6 
Individuality,   development  of, 

69 

Industries,  disappearance  of  do- 
mestic,  i,  4,  5,   1 6,  29 

retention  of   domestic,   6,    75 
Influence  of  buying,  5 
Investments,  51,  52 
Institutional  life,   failure  of,   7 

Juvenile  Court,  2,  7,  85 
Juvenile   Protective  Association, 
42 

Labor  Legislation  Association,  42 
conditions  of  household,   50 

Language,  training  in,  69 

Laws,   Engel's,   14 

Legal  Aid  Society,  59 

relations    of  householder,    22 
peculiarities  in  domestic  serv- 
ice, 58,  59 

LePlay,   14 

Limitation    of   householder's 
rights,  21 

Living  in  system,  61 
objections  to,  61,   62 

Maid,  social  inferiority  of,  58 
Maker    and    buyer,    common    in- 
terests of,  6 


Making,  function  of,  6 

provision   for  wants  by,   5 
spending  substitute  for,  5 
Management,  scientific,  47,  48 
Manners,  training  in,  69 
Manufacture  of  clothing,  41,  42 
Mechanical  appliances,  49 
Methods,  archaic,  3 
Mistress  and  maid,   relationship 

of,  57,  58 
Money,  use  of,  51 
More,  39 

Needs,  supply  of,  13 
Neglected  streets,  85 
Neighborhood    improvement    as- 
sociation, 83 
Nutritive  value  of  foods,  31 

Object  of  household,  47 
Obligations  of  householder  to 

community,  23 

Organization    of    personal    serv- 
ice, 62,  63 

Overeating,  danger  of,  32 
Owning  versus  renting,  25 

Pensions,  2 

Personal  service,  organization 

of,  62,  63 

Philanthropic  activities,   78 
Physical    processes,    significance 

of,  74 

training,   70,   71 
Places  of  amusement,  77,  85 
Placing  out,  2 

Planning    for   spending,    12,    13 
Playgrounds,    85 
Poor,  family  life  among  the,   i 
Position   of  housekeeper,   4,    17 
Power  in  spending,  5 
Predigested  foods,  34 
Preparation  for  buying,  6 
Prepared  foods,  32,  33,  35 
Preserve-making,  decline  of,  31 
Principles  of  feeding,  30 
Problem,     domestic,    seriousness 

of,  3 

Production,  home  centre  of,  n 
Provision  for  future,  51,  52 
for  wants  by  making,  5 


INDEX  ;  i 


Public  function,  housekeeping  a, 

82 

servants,  control  of,  87 
works,  control  of,  83,  86 

Purposes  of  clothing,  37,  38 

Relation  of  housekeeper  to  busi- 
ness, 6 
Relationship    of   mistress    and 

maid,  57,  58 
Religious  activities,  77 

Education  Association,  77 
Renting,  owning  versus,  25 
Resistance  to  disease,  24 
Responsibility,  training  in,   70 
Retention   of   domestic   indus- 
tries, 6,  75 

Resources,  distribution  of,   13,16 
Responsibility  of  housekeeper,  8 
Rights,    limitation    of    house- 
holder's, 21 
Rowntree,  39 

Sanitary  aspects  of  clothing,  40, 

4i 

considerations   in  housing,    24 

enactments,  24 
Sanitation,  tendencies  in,   23 
School,  a  household  interest,  67 
Scientific  management,   47,   48 
Self-indulgence  in  feeding,  32 
Selection  of  clothing,   37,  43 
Service,   elimination  of,   56,    57 

within  the  home,  57 
Sex  instruction,  71 
Significance   of  physical  proc- 
esses,  74,  79 
Social  inferiority  of  maid,  58 

problems,   study  of,   78,   79 

organization,    family   as,    i 
Spenders,   women   as,    of   family 

income,  10 
Spending,   function  of,  6 

planning  for,  12 

power  in,   5 

substitute  for  making,  5 
Standard  of  living,  choice  of,  12 
Standards  in  clothing,  39 

of  efficiency,   2 

Standardization     of    housework, 
60,   61,   62,   63 


State,     control    of    householder 

by,  21 

State  control,  study  of,   22 
Stimulation  of  buying  clothing, 

38 
Streets,  care  of,  83 

neglected,   85 
Study  of  social  problems,   78 

of   state    control,    22 
Styles  in  clothing,  38,  39 
Supply  of  needs,   13 
Sweatshop  clothing,   41,  42 

Tasks,  household,   56 
Tendencies,  hereditary,   71 

in  sanitation,  23 
Textile  laws,  39 
Training,   ethical,    71 

for  housekeeping,  87 

group,  71 

in   cooperation,   68 

in  language,   69 

in  manners,  69 

in  responsibility,   70 

of  domestic  servants,  63,  64 

physical,   70,   71 
Twentieth  century  ideals,  3 

Use    of   governmental    organiza- 
tion, 86 

of   forethought,   50 
of   fruits,    31 
of  money,   51 

Wage-earning,  4 

Wage-paid  woman,  4 

Waste,  disposal  of,  85 

Wasteful    methods    in    consump- 
tion,   ii 

Welfare   of  household,   49 

Wholesale    buying    of    food,    34 

Woman,  wage-paid,    4 

Woman's  sphere,  the  home,  84, 
88 

Women    as    spenders    of    family 
income,    10 

Women  outgrown  by  homes,  85, 
86 

Working    conditions    of    em- 
ployee,  60 


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